The Next Morning, Sasuke's Kitchen
"... No sleep again?" Sasuke plops down into a chair opposite me. Thankfully he's ready for the day this time, there's no ridiculous pajamas. I'm both relieved and disappointed, they were excellent blackmail material.
"Only about three hours. Once the nightmares woke me up I couldn't get back to sleep."
"Three is better than zero. You'll get there eventually, it took me a long time too."
"How long? I don't know if I can keep going like this."
"Months. To this day I still sometimes lose sleep over it. It isn't something you ever get over, you learn to live with it." He grimly says. He's not lying either, the pain in his eyes is to real.
KNOCK KNOCK
"OI! SASUKE YOU IN THERE?"
"Was that Naruto?" I think it was.
"What the hell does he want?" Sasuke grumbles as he moves to the door.
That's a great question, what does Naruto want? Actually why isn't he with Jiraya? Better yet what's Jiraya doing? They need to leave to get Tsunade soon.
"Yes? Did you need something Naruto?" Sasuke asks.
"I thought you, me and Alvarcus could do another mission." He sheepishly rubs the back of his head. "I would have asked him first, but I have no idea where he lives."
"Hey Naruto! I've been crashing here for a while!" I call out to him.
"That makes this so much easier! What do you two say? You in?" He eagerly asks.
"Not like I've got anything better to do." I get up and walk over to him.
"... Fine." Sasuke agrees. "But I'm picking the mission this time."
...
"What the hell are we supposed to do?" Naruto harshly whispers to Sasuke and I.
"Be quiet! They're about to walk past!" Sasuke shushes him.
"I blame you for this Sasuke. This is all your fault." I muster as much anger as I can in a whisper. It's a surprisingly large amount.
"How the hell is this my fault!"
"You picked the rubble clearing mission in this ridiculous heat, then got the bright idea to take your shirt off to cool down. You've been gone for over a month! How did you think your fan-girls would react?"
"You're the one that was yelling about my pajamas! You didn't help at all! And did you have to be so descriptive? 'They're dark like a stormy cloud and the blue jays shine like the worlds most precious sapphires. They're exactly like him, a brooding ominous person but once you examine him closer you find that there's brilliant shinning points to him.' You egged them on!"
"Shut up! They're seconds away!" Naruto commands us.
All three of us spend the next seconds in a tense silence. We don't move, we don't blink, we barely breath.
"I found them! They're over here!"
"RUN! Meet at Rally Point Delta!" I yell and we scatter.
...
The Next Morning, Sasuke's Kitchen
"Any sleep last night?" I ask Sasuke.
He shudders. "No. I was plagued by the visions of the most vile creature to ever walk the earth."
"Fan-girls?"
"Fan-girls." He venomously spits out.
KNOCK KNOCK
"OI!" Huh, Naruto is here again.
"Doors open!" Sasuke calls out.
"Sup guys?" Naruto says once he's inside. "Up for another mission?"
"Why not? Not like it could go any worse than yesterday's." Sasuke grumbles.
"That means it's my turn to pick!" I happily chime out.
"This is not going to end well." Sasuke groans.
...
"I hate you." Sasuke says.
"I hate you too." Naruto agrees.
"You can't blame me for that. It was a simple demolition mission! All we had to do was get rid of a half destroyed house!"
"And you managed to blow it up." Sasuke accuses. "Along with three others."
"That's not to mention all the other buildings that caught fire in the blast. They had to call in ANBU." Naruto hangs his head in shame. "ANBU."
"How was I supposed to know that the shinobi that lived there was working with explosive chemicals?"
"Alvarcus you don't have to solve everything with fire!" Sasuke whirls on me. "You could have pushed it over with an earth jutsu or used wind to cut away key structural points but you lit the building on fire!"
"But... but it's fire! It's so cool!" I say with stars in my eyes. "It solves everything! Naruto next time summon Gamabunta again and we can do that crazy combo! I can even add wind to the mix now that I've practiced with it! Muahahaha! AHAHAHA! MUAHAHAHA!"
THWAP
"Bad Alvarcus! Bad! We don't cackle like evil villains! Bad!"
"Sasuke I'm not a dog. You can't train me like that."
"I don't know, we haven't tried a squirt bottle yet." Naruto evilly adds.
"Do keep in mind that I'm the only one here that knows water jutsu. If you get a squirt bottle I guarantee that I'm going to come out on top."
"Maybe a shock collar?" Sasuke suggests.
"Also know lightning jutsu. A lot of lightning jutsu."
"We could muzzle him." Naruto offers.
"It would certainly cut back on my headaches." Sasuke mentions.
"Stop that! Stop it right now!" I order them. "I am not a dog!"
...
The Next Morning, Sasuke's Kitchen.
Sasuke and I are sitting across from each other.
"Any sleep last night?" He asks. "Cuz I didn't get any. I kept dreaming you burned down my house."
"I'm sorry! I won't intentionally burn down any more buildings!" I pause. "Maybe. I promise nothing."
"You have a serious problem."
Knock Knock
"Oh just get in here already." Sasuke groans.
"Hey guys. We need to talk." Naruto sits down at the table too. "I... I think we should not take missions together for a while."
"Oh thank Kami!" I say in relief as Sasuke let's out the world biggest sigh.
"It's just... wait. You two are okay with that?" Naruto sound surprised.
"Yeah. Nothing against you, but when all three of us work together something terrible happens. On every damn mission we take too." Sasuke says with a hint of fear laced into his voice.
"Thank Kami I thought this was going to be so much harder than that." Naruto sighs. "I can't believe every mission went wrong. They were D-ranks. D-ranks!"
"What do you guys mean every mission?" I ask. "I thought we did alright on the Tora one."
Both Sasuke and Naruto twitch.
"That's because you weren't attacked. I had half a mind to go get rabies shots." Naruto shudders at the memory.
"We will never speak of that day again." Sasuke demands.
"It wasn't-"
"NEVER AGAIN!"
"Fine party pooper have it your way." There's nothing wrong with Tora, thank you!
"So..." Naruto awkwardly says. "Have you two ate breakfast yet?"
"Nope." I tell him.
"No."
"Well... if you want we could maybe go together?" He hurriedly reaches into a jacket pocket and pulls out a couple of crumpled pieces of paper. "I know a great place that has the best food ever! I've got coupons and everything. What do you guys say?"
Poor Naruto. He's really starved for attention if he's willing to do something like this. I wonder how many people his age he actually talks to?
"Sure. I'll go." His face lights up at my words. "I guarantee it's better than the food here."
We both turn to Sasuke.
"No thanks, I happen to have plans for breakfast already." He casually tells us.
What the hell? He has plans? I didn't expect that. Wait a minute... could it be? Nah, that's ridiculous this is Sasuke! Okay I have to ask.
"Sasuke, are you going on a date?"
He freezes, his whole body locks up. His eyes are super wide and there's a surprising tinge of red on his cheeks.
"You are!" I accuse him. "So, whose the lucky lady? Do I know her?"
"Wow would you look at the time? I best be going, bye!" He disappears in a swirl of leaves. That bastard shunshined away from me before I could grill him for information!
"I'm actually proud of him. Who would have thought that Sasuke would go on a date?" I say to myself. "Well Naruto, it's just us. Still want to go?"
He shrugs. "Honestly I was prepared for neither of you wanting to go. I'm still game."
...
"You know when you asked if I had breakfast yet I thought we were going to get breakfast food." I deadpan to Naruto.
"But this is breakfast food." He reassures me.
"This is a ramen stand."
"No, it's the ramen stand. There's a distinct difference." He boldly strides into the stand.
"Whatever, I've had weirder things for breakfast before." I follow after him.
"Hey Teuchi, hey Ayame. How's things?" Naruto calls out.
"Naruto! Long time no see! How've you been? You need to come by more often we miss our favorite customer!" Teuchi happily replies.
"Oh you've brought a friend!" Ayame kindly waves at me. "Hello, I'm Ayame and that's my tou-san Teuchi."
I give a sheepish wave back. "I'm Alvarcus Mar, pleasure to meet you."
Ayame's eyes go wide when I said my name. "You're..."
"A customer." Teuchi cuts in. "They came here to eat, not to be stared at."
Great. Even ramen cooks know about me. Who doesn't know about me? Is this what Sasuke always feels like when he tries to go somewhere?
"So what will it be boys?" Teuchi asks us. I'm glad he's not making a big deal out of it.
"The usual please." Naruto orders.
"Twelve bowls of assorted ramen coming right up! What about you Alvarcus?"
"Uh... surprise me. I've only ever had cup ramen, so I'll trust your judgment."
"Gotcha!" He walks back to the kitchen.
"He knows I don't want twelve bowls right?" I ask Naruto.
"Maybe? I dunno. Oh well if you don't eat it I will."
"Works for me." I give a halfhearted shrug. "So how's training with Jiraya going? Gotta be cool being taught by a Sannin."
"Oh it's great! He's really strong and he knows tons of jutsu! I've learned loads of things from him." He pauses and his face turns slightly bitter. "When he's not working on his books. Or his spy network. Or peaking on women. Or drinking. Or... well you get the idea. When he actually takes the time to teach me something it's great."
"Ouch. That's got to be rough."
"It is."
"Hey, at least he's always around. Sure he's not always teaching you but you can go to him for advise. He didn't disappear for a month with your teammate."
He chuckles. "Yeah that would suck. When I need him to he comes through for me, he is always there. It's nice having someone I can turn to. Wait, did your sensei do that?"
"Yep. Took Sasuke for a month long training trip right before the final tournament."
"Dude. Talk about favoritism."
"Nah, it wasn't really like how you're thinking. He lined up a teacher for me before he left. Actually he picked the perfect person. The guy was terrible at teaching but he wasn't really there to teach me."
"Well what was he there for? Who wants a teacher who doesn't teach?"
"He was there to help me adjust to the Jiongu. He survived something similar to me. Besides, Kakashi-sensei knows how resourceful I am. He knew I didn't really need anyone to help me I just had to get used to my new power. Yamato was more of a babysitter than anything. Kakashi wanted to make sure someone was looking out for me while he was gone."
"Oh. That makes sense." He pauses. "Do you mind if I ask about the Jiongu?"
"Sure, ask away. I can't promise I'll answer but I'll at least hear you out. There's some things I don't want to talk about. Bad memories and all that."
"Does... does it talk to you?" He whispers out.
"Sometimes."
"What does it say?"
"That's one of those things I don't want to talk about." I don't think I would have been that brutal with the Suna nin if it wasn't for the Jiongu.
"Oh. Sorry."
"Nah, don't worry about it. There's no harm in asking. Anything else you want to know?"
"Do you wish you could get rid of it?"
"Usually. Every once in a while I find I'm thankful I have it. Take the invasion for instance, there's no way I would have been able to do half of what I did without it. I would never have made it out of the stadium. Hell I might not have made it out of the contestant booth."
"Here's your ramen boys!" Ayame prances out and places our respective bowls in front of us. "Dig in!"
We both do, Naruto with much more gusto than me. It's actually pretty good, I had my doubts.
"So what has you so curious about the Jiongu?" I ask between bites. "Usually people ask about what it can do, not what it is like. Actually most people don't even know that it is called the Jiongu."
"Oh. Uh... no reason really. Just wondering." He attacks his meal with renewed gusto.
We eat in silence for a bit. Every once in a while Naruto would glance at me with a tinge of hope in his eyes and a great deal of sympathy.
"It doesn't bother me. In case you were 'just wondering' about that too." I break the silence.
He freezes with noodles halfway to his mouth. He's terrified right now, but there's a sliver of hope in his eyes. "What doesn't bother you?"
My eyes dart to his stomach, right where his seal is. "We're pretty similar, you and I." I extend a couple of threads out of the palm of my hand and let it twirl my eating utensils around. "I never asked for this. I never wanted this. But I have it. I'm not going to let it define me. The Jiongu doesn't decide who I am, I decide that." I snap the Jiongu back into me.
"You don't have to worry about scaring me off. You can be yourself around me, hell you can talk about it to me if you want to. Let's be honest, no one else really knows what it's like."
Naruto resumes eating at a much more relaxed pace. All the tension that he usually carries with him is gone. "You know, you're actually pretty cool. I'm glad we're friends."
"Me too Naruto. Me too."