Excuse me for the lack of ramen, sir, I wasn't expecting such an intrusion at this hour...

So I've been thinking about it for a few hours and I've decided I'm going to post my most in character fanfic ever. Unfortunately, it isn't finished and I never really knew where it was going when it started and I'm having trouble getting back into the zone to finish it, so maybe one of my someday readers can help me out?

This is another fic that was inspired by me realizing the first sentence. Most of my fics are thought up that way, by me all of a sudden thinking a sentence and then just going at it.

What's really fun is that this hints towards things I've had in my kakairu fics (even though I wrote this about 3 years before I wrote any of my kakairu stuff).

~

Naruto was confused.

Now, this wasn’t an unusual occurrence, so there wasn’t really any reason to be up in arms about it. The blonde container for the nine-tailed fox found himself confused often.

What was unusual was the situation that caused this confusion.

30 minutes ago . . .

For once in his life, Naruto was the first to show up at a meeting place. He was quite proud of himself. Sasuke bastard wasn’t sulking around yet, Sakura wasn’t fawning over him (though Naruto sure wished sometimes that she would fawn over him, too) (or only), and Kakashi sensei wasn’t being a pervert with lame excuses… or at least, not here.

“It’s good to be the only one here,” Naruto thought as he plopped down in front of a tree.

There was a brief moment of doubt in which he thought maybe he wasn’t really the first there, maybe they had left without him!

That thought was put to rest as a dark set of spikes just barely came into view over the bridge. Soon, all of Sasuke was seen over the bridge they met at everyday in all his dark, sulking glory. Just like everyday, he stalked forward until he could just casually lean against a support beam of the bridge.

Naruto glared his best glare at him, the one that made him look foxy, the same one that pissed Sasuke off. Sasuke bastard glared back, his looking a lot less cool in Naruto’s opinion.

So much for being the only one there.

“What the hell’s your problem, moron?”

The blonde’s glare instantly intensified.

“What’s it to you bastard?” he asked, grabbing his ankles. He rocked back and forth for a minute, trying to think of a wittier comeback. “Why are you late anyway? Shouldn’t a perfect bastard like you always be on time?”

Sasuke sniffed, looking someplace to the side instead of at Naruto.

“What’s a dead last like you doing here early?”

Blue irises temporarily showed themselves as the boy studied his dark haired companion.

“You antsy, Sasuke bastard? What’s up?”

Dark eyes flashed red as he glanced back at Naruto.

“Nothings up. Maybe I just don’t feel like humoring an idiot this early in the morning.”

Naruto didn’t believe him, but he wasn’t sure how to approach the subject so he just went back to that foxish glare of his.

It was strange of him to worry about the Uchiha (usually he only worried about himself, Sakura, and Iruka), but he was being weird this morning.

And Sakura still wasn’t here.

“You know,” he said after a while, leaning far back so he could study the boy from a few inches farther away, “you’ve been weird ever since our last mission. Is this about that?”

Sasuke, twitched, but didn’t give any other response.

“Is it ‘cause Kakashi thought it’d be funny to make you learn the sexy jutsu?”

Those dark eyes glared at him again, but, again, no verbal response.

“Is it ‘cause Sakura ignored you for the rest of the night?”

A slight smirk answered him this time.

Naruto scowled when he realized why.

“Is it ‘cause you’re a royal bastard and couldn’t stand sharing a room with someone so unworthy of the air around you?” he gritted out, sarcasm dripping from his words.

The dark glare returned, even more intense than before.

“That’s it then? You’re such a big jerk that you can’t even share a room with your own teammate without getting into a funk?”

A strangled noise left the other boy as he stood up straight, fists clenched.

“You’re a moron, you know that?” He ground out, suddenly furious.

With that, he dashed away, back over the bridge. A startled gasp was heard when Sasuke nearly knocked over Sakura, who was just now arriving.

Now…

And now, Naruto stood confused. Sakura, also unsure of how to process this, glared at him. Turning on her heel, with every intention of following the child prodigy, she was startled for the second time since waking. This time she did fall down.

“Kakashi sensei?! Y-your on time?!”

The sensei in question gave her a lazy look before turning to Naruto.

“Well,” he stated dryly. “Aren’t you going to run after him?”

Giving his teacher a bewildered look (really, the pervert acted as if it wasn’t a sign of the apocalypse that he was on time!), the blonde only hesitated for a second before doing just as Kakashi had round about-ly ordered him.

Three days ago…

“So, we’re to go to a neighboring village and deliver this very urgent message to an inn keeper,” Kakashi drawled, and it was clear he hardly thought the message to be urgent.

“The sender probably just didn’t make it in time to the post office for over night delivery,” Naruto muttered.

Beside him, Sasuke scoffed.

“For once I agree with the idiot.”

Naruto, unsure of how to take that comment, settled for looking at his dark haired teammate with a suspicious glare. A smirk and two raised brows greeted him.

“How far is this village?” Sakura asked, unknowingly cutting off a slowly forming fight between
the boys.

Kakashi shrugged.

“Far enough that we may want to camp out on the way back.”

Twin groans filled the momentary silence following.

“I can’t sleep in the forest with boys!” Sakura cried, red faced.

“I didn’t even bring along a cup ramen,” Naruto whined.

“Why the hell didn’t you have us bring a change of clothes?!”

The rest of his team turned to face the Uchiha. Green and blue eyes widened as they processed what he said and a single black eye turned into a happy arc.

“I guess you’ll just have to wear the same clothes tomorrow, Sasuke,” he said cheerfully.
This time the two groans were accompanied by a low curse.

Several hours later (still three days ago)…

Team 7 reached the inn just after sundown. The three teenagers glowered at their still (most likely) grinning sensei.

“Oh, thank you so very much,” the inn keeper, a fairly young woman, said bowing several times to the group of ninja.

“It was nothing but a walk in the park,” Kakashi stated, his eye looking mischievous, if Naruto knew anything about his teacher. “Er, a walk in the forest actually.”

The young woman laughed, a pink hue on hercheeks. Seeing where this was going, Sasuke decided to cut in.

“Hey, Kakashi sensei, don’t you think she looks like Iruka-sensei?”

The Copy nin’s smiling eye twitched and he straightened from his slouched position.

“I think you need your eyes checked Sasuke,” he muttered unhappily, cutting off Naruto's scandalized cry before it could start. After a moment, he sighed and begrudgingly said, “I suppose we should start heading back though.”

The inn keeper looked disappointed for all of a second before her face brightened again.

“Why don’t you stay here for the night, it’s far too late to reach Konoha tonight.”

And the grin returned to Kakashi’s face… er, eye.

Fifteen minutes after that…

The inn keeper, whose name was Kouki, had the cook prepare a quick meal for them. She said it was out of gratitude for getting the parcel to her so soon. The genin had been disgusted to find out that the very urgent message had been a birthday card made by Kouki’s younger sister, which was already a week and a half late. Kakashi, of course, completely ignored the important facts and wished her a very happy birthday in such a tone that the young woman’s face broke out into a violent blush.

“Hey, lady, how old’re you now then?” Naruto asked, blunt as ever and seeing nothing wrong with that.

Kouki barely glanced at him before saying “Twenty-three” in a rather dismissive voice before laying all her attention on the eldest of the group.

“So, Kouki, how long have you been in charge here?” Kakashi questioned, chin resting against his hand.

Sasuke snorted, staring at his bowl of rice far too intently. Naruto looked at him curiously, wondering what the hell was wrong with the bastard. Sure, Kakashi sensei was acting like a real weirdo, but he was always weird or a pervert. At least he wasn’t hitting on Kouki or anything like that.

“What’s your problem?” Naruto muttered, barely resisting the urge to kick Sasuke under the table. It would be rude to make a fuss in front of civilians.

That, and Sakura had nearly stabbed him with her chopsticks the last time he kicked Sasuke in front of her.

“You are,” Sasuke retorted, being far more conspicuous than Naruto had been if he could say so himself.

Naruto scowled then, looking down at his own food. For a moment, he and Sasuke were identical in countenance and pose. Unfortunately, that moment was long enough for their sensei to notice his sullen students.

“Naruto, Sasuke, if you’re going to be rude, you can just go to your room right now.”

Eyes wide, Naruto shoveled as much food into his mouth as possible. He wasn’t being sent to bed on an empty stomach.

“Our room?” Sasuke asked, still ignoring his food. “We’re sharing?”

Kakashi nodded, looking extremely not amused.

“Generous Kouki here can only afford to give us two rooms. I can’t put Naruto in with Sakura because we all know what would happen there. I can’t put Sakura in with you for similar reasons. So you and Naruto will be bunking together and Sakura will get the other room.”

“And you?” Sasuke challenged.

By now, Sakura and Naruto were listening closely, both disheartened by Kakashi’s speech. They all were nervous when he smiled suddenly.

“I’ll sleep in a tree. Like a real ninja would.”

Sakura and Naruto blanched. Sasuke was unmoved, though his sullenness seemed even deeper, if that were possible.

Now…

“Sasuke bastard, wait up!” Naruto shouted, not considering that Sasuke might not appreciate the name calling at such a time.

Sasuke ignored him.

"What the hells your problem!?"

Suddenly, Naruto collided with the Uchiha's back. Why the hell was he stopping!?

They tumbled over, Naruto on top of Sasuke then Sasuke on top of Naruto until they weren't caught up in fall as much as wrestling it out. Naruto wasn't really sure what was going on, he just knew that Sasuke had tried to elbow him in the ribs so he dug his knee into the jerk's stomach.

And then Naruto yowled as Sasuke grabbed his hair and pulled. Hard. He kicked the Uzumaki in the knee and flung himself away.

Naruto wasn't sure what to make of this development. Sasuke had never fought dirty before. If they started wrestling, they would do just that. Wrestle around for a while and then they'd unofficially call a truce by calling each other moron and bastard and that was that.

Propping himself up on his elbows, Naruto peered over at his teammate.

Sasuke was standing against a tree, eyes wide and staring at Naruto in horror.

~

Sorry, but that's all I have for now.