Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Alone in the World ❯ Children are Evil and Girls are Weird ( Chapter 9 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]
Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto.

Alone in the World

Chapter Nine-

Sakura and Sasuke arrived soon after Naruto did. Naruto head snapped up with a smile plastered on his face. He looked them straight in the eyes. Sakura opened her mouth to say something to him, but Naruto beat her to it.

“Hey, guys, it’s about time you showed up. Kakashi-sensei says we have a mission today!” he said, jumping up from his sitting position, and dusting off the seat of his pants.

“Where were you two?” Kakashi asked, sounding irritated.

Sasuke remained silent, expressionless.

Sakura on the other hand became flustered, her face going pink, and she began to mess with the bottom of her shirt. “Uh, um…that is…we weren’t anywhere. We went looking for Naruto when he didn’t show up this morning,” she said.

Naruto looked at her with an expression of complete disbelief. Why the hell did she bring him into this? He didn’t want to be a part of her excuses!

Kakashi sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that morning. What was up with all the lies? And first thing in the morning, too. He didn’t like it but they didn’t have time to discuss it now.

“Ok, whatever. Let’s go. We don’t want to be late,” he said, turning to go and motioning his three students to follow.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke followed silently.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

It was early evening; the sun was sinking slowly towards the horizon. Naruto walked into his apartment and flipped on the living room lights. He was dead-tired. The mission was lame, as usual, but still exhausting. They had had to baby-sit a couple of spoiled brats. Three to be exact. A seven year old, a five year old, and a two year old. But he still had fun in the end.

When they had first arrived…well, let’s just say the ‘children’ weren’t exactly nice. The seven and five year olds were aspiring pranksters. And he wasn’t quite sure how it happened. But one moment he was a target of their pranks, and the next he was an accomplice, or rather, their leader.

He flopped down on his couch, closing his eyes. He sighed, throughout the day, he had managed to not think of Sakura and Sasuke kissing, he didn’t have time to do it, but now that he was home and everything was quiet he couldn’t help but think of it.

Throughout the day he had covertly watched them to see if there was any difference in the way Sasuke treated Sakura. But there wasn’t. He had ignored her just like every other day. If they had gotten together, wouldn’t Sasuke have treated Sakura differently? A little nicer, maybe. Or ignored her a little less than usual. But then again, this was Sasuke he was talking about…

His eyes snapped open and he sighed in a disgusted manner. He was so pathetic. He couldn’t even get over one, stupid, little kiss. Geeze, if Sakura wanted that jerk-wad Sasuke then what did that say about her?

And what did it say about him, that he was in love with her? He sat up. ‘Whoa, ‘Love’? Do I really love her?’ He thought, ‘I mean, I like her a lot, but is it ‘love’?’ What did he know of love?

He shook his head, and got up from the couch. He walked to his bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. He slapped his whiskered-marked cheeks, and then grinned at himself in the mirror. It was small and looked forced. ‘Pathetic’ he thought, slapping himself again. He grinned wider, and more naturally this time, but it still didn’t look right…

He slapped himself harder this time, leaving a red welt on his cheek. Tears sprung to his eyes, but he shook them off. He grinned again, and this time it was perfect.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Sasuke sat in his living room, his eyes half closed. He had gotten home a half hour ago and had nearly fallen onto the couch and had stayed in that position ever since.

Children are evil. And whoever wants them is crazy.

He had just spent the entire day taking care of a two year, while trying to avoid the older kids’ tricks and traps. And it didn’t really help that Naruto was assisting them, so the monkeyshines ((A/N: Hehehe, monkeyshines….it’s a synonym for ‘pranks’ or so said my computer…)) were slightly more advance than they would have been.

He shifted slightly, and immediately regretted it. His left hand moved to cover the right side of his ribs. If he were to pull up his shirt and look at it, there would probably be a nasty purple bruise. ‘Damn that brat!’ he thought angrily.

-:-:-Flashback-:-:-

Sasuke tried not to drop the toddler as he thrashed about, trying to get away from Sasuke. He yelled and scratched at Sasuke’s face. The kid slipped in his arms but Sasuke managed to keep a hold of him, somehow. His arms were wrapped around the kid’s chest, under his arms. He clenched his teeth and tried to hoist the child back up into a more comfortable position. How the hell did he get the job of watching this demon-child?

“LEAVE MY BABY BROTHER ALONE!!!!!” was all he heard before pain exploded in his side, causing him to stagger and fall, pulled down by the extra weight he was carrying.

-:-:-End Flashback-:-:-

Luckily he managed to move his position in the short time that it took for him to hit the ground, so that the toddler fell on him instead of the other way around. The kid had sounded an awful ruckus. His cry was so piercingly loud that Sasuke thought his eardrums would bust.

He got up and slowly walked to the kitchen. He pulled open the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. He twisted it open and took a long draught. He wiped his mouth with his forearm sleeves ((A/N: I have no clue what those things are that he wears on his forearms…What are they called?)) and shook his head, ‘I’m never having kids,’ he thought. He stopped realizing his mistake, if he was going to revive the Uchiha clan, then he’d have to have kids, so he revised his thought, ‘I’m never having kids like that.’

He let the refrigerator door close as he walked away, leaving the kitchen. He walked down the shadowed hall that led to his bedroom. He opened his bedroom door and walked in. He unbuckled his forearm sleeves and threw them on his bed. The shadows were deepening, but he didn’t turn the lights on. He took off his head-band and placed it on his dresser. He stripped off his shirt and threw it on the floor. He let himself drop onto his bed. He put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.

He let his mind wander to earlier that morning.

-:-:-Flashback-:-:-

Sasuke was squatting a few feet away from Sakura, who was sitting on the conveniently placed boulder. He was bored out his mind and for once Sakura wasn’t bothering him by asking him out or trying to make chit-chat. He didn’t know how he felt about that….on second thought, yes he did. It felt great to be able to get some elbow space from her.

Sakura suddenly stood up and walked over to Sasuke, biting her thumbnail. She stood in front of him in silence, looking like she was unsure what she was going to do.

Sasuke looked up at her from his squatting position, with an emotionless expression on his face.

She said nothing and stared into his eyes.

Finally after about of minutes of them staring at each other, “What?” he had asked. ‘Is there something on my face?’ he thought.

“Um…can we go for a walk?”

“What for? Kakashi-sensei and that loser Naruto will probably get her in a few minutes,” He said.

Sakura opened her mouth to say something, but shut it instead, still chewing on her thumbnail. “But what if Naruto got lost or something?”

Sasuke’s brow furrowed, “Why would he get lost? This is where we always meet.”

“Well, seeing as he missed yesterday, maybe he forgot or maybe he doesn’t know that we’re still meeting here in the same location or something…” Sakura explained, trailing off.

“But wouldn’t he figure that if we didn’t tell him otherwise, this is the same place to meet at?” Sasuke asked, giving Sakura a suspicious look. What was she up to?

Sakura gave an exasperated sigh, “This
is Naruto we’re talking about…”

Ah, he had to give her points for that one. He stood up, “Alright,” he said, “I’ll give you that, but shouldn’t one of us stay here just in case he
does come by here?” He waited to see what she would say next.

She was silent a few moments, as if debating with herself. “Alright, geeze, I don’t really want to look for Naruto, I just wanted to ask you something.”

‘Ah-ha! I knew it!’ Sasuke thought, “Well, then ask.”

She stood there fidgeting, her face slightly flushed, finally she mumbled not looking at him, “I can’t ask you here.”

It was Sasuke’s turn to give an exasperated sigh, “Why not?”

She spread her arms out, still not looking at him. “It’s too open…”

Sasuke nodded, “Ok, but what are we going to do?”

She finally looked him in the eye, “I want to test a theory of mine.”

-:-:-End Flashback-:-:-

Sasuke walked down the hall, a towel wrapped around his waist and another draped over his shoulders. Water dripped down from his hair. As he made it to his room, he began to towel dry his hair with one hand.

‘A theory she said,’ he thought. He hadn’t asked what her theory was and she never told him. But once they were a secluded in the forest, she had asked him to kiss her. At first he refused, but eventually he gave in. Why? Because she gave him this look. This puppy-dog look and it annoyed the hell out of him, so he complied just to get that expression off of her face.

So he kissed her and surprisingly he actually enjoyed it. Not that he’d ever admit it. And it wasn’t like he had much to compare it to, the only other person he had ever kissed was...Naruto. And that was indescribably revolting. He shuddered, thinking about it.

He put a pair of shorts on and went to bed. His last thoughts as he drifted off to sleep were:

Children were evil, girls were weird and unfortunately he needed both.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Sakura lay in bed. It was late and she wanted to be asleep, but she just couldn’t.

After reading Naruto’s journal the other night, she didn’t know how to feel. About anything. She still liked Sasuke, but now she thought she felt something for Naruto. But what kept going through her mind was: If she only started to feel something for Naruto after she read his journal, did she really like him?

She didn’t know the answer to that, so she came up with a theory. An experiment to find out the truth.

And that theory was…she’d know how she truly felt about Sasuke and Naruto if she kissed them. And that was what she had planned on doing, but not anymore. She couldn’t do it anymore. Not after Naruto saw her kissing Sasuke. He’d think she was a slut if she went to him and kissed him after that.

She sighed, and another thing that loomed over her was fact that she didn’t know how to return his journal without him knowing that she took it. She had it tucked away in her drawer, where, hopefully nobody would find it.

She sighed again. She’d think of something. Maybe she’d go to Naruto’s place tomorrow morning and offer to buy him breakfast.

She rolled over onto her stomach, burying her face in her pillow and willed herself to sleep.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

“Wan t another one?”

Iruka looked up, breaking out of his thoughts, “Huh? Oh, yeah, sure…” he trailed off, going back into his thoughts as the bartender refilled his glass.

The bartender looked at Iruka in amazement as he downed the glass of vodka* in one gulp. Of course, it was an unusual occurrence to even see him in here in the first place. He wondered what was on his mind to make him drink like this.

He stared into the empty glass blankly.

Iruka couldn’t believe it. Of all the idiotic things that Naruto has done Iruka never believed that he’d stoop so low as this. Not that he had any right to say anything against it. He guessed that was why he left without talking to Naruto about it.

After Naruto left, it was still pretty early, and he didn’t have to get to class for at least another hour, so he decided to stick around Naruto’s place. Right before Naruto had woken up, he had gone to his room. In all honesty, Iruka hadn’t seen Naruto on the couch. So, he had gone straight to his room and upon seeing that the room was obviously uninhabitable he had headed back to the living room and that was when he heard a thump coming from the living room.

‘Restroom…what was I thinking?’ Iruka thought, getting sidetracked from his previously broodings. Well, he hadn’t really been thinking. That was the first thing that popped out of his mouth. He didn’t want Naruto to know that he saw his bedroom and starting something right then and there. But most of all, he didn’t want to Naruto to lie to him again.

Well, he knew Naruto and he knew that Naruto would probably never get his room clean again, so he decided to do it for him. Which would have been just fine, he could’ve asked Naruto about it later that night. He only had an hour, so he cleaned as quickly and thoroughly as he could. It wasn’t that much, really. He just had to put the mattress back on the bedspring and put the drawers back in the dressers, stuff the cloths in them, sweep up the broken glass from the mirror, the broken lamp, and the picture frame, hang the few clothes back in the closet, pick up the various food wrappers that were already littering the floor and that was when he saw it.

It was just a glimmer at the corner of his eyes; he turned to see what it was. He went on hands and knees, looking under the dresser. There was a stain on the wooden floor there peeking out from under the dresser. He reached in a pulled it out, looking at in complete disbelief.

He could feel it in his vest pocket, like it was burning a hole into his chest. He could see it so clearly in his mind. The small, rectangular, metal blade, covered in what at first seems to be rust, but if you look closer and if you had seen it before you’d know what it really was.

Dried blood.

-:-:-End Chapter Nine-:-:-

A/N: Whadja think? I’m so proud of myself. I gave myself a two-week deadline and I met it. Whoo-hoo!

Oh and Thanks Allmightynano1 for editing my story and helping me out with ideas and junk.

*I'm not to knowledgeble when it comes to liquor and stuff, if my oldest brother was around he might have been able to help me, but he's not and the brother I do have doesn't have a clue...what kind of older brother is that?!