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[Naruto] Things that could have happened had Hizashi been the older son - 10
Title: Things that could have happened had Hizashi been the older son. (or: a cage is a cage is a curse, dammit.)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
runespoor7
Rating: PG-13
Summary: series of unrelated drabbles/fics, based on "well, what if?"
Notes: remember this piece of crack? Well, there's more. (And I hinted at what pairings? 0_o?) pre-NejiHina.
previously: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
9A. work cont'd
Kiba snickered dirtily when Naruto stomped into the room, a thunderous expression on his face, with more blood on his tattered shirt than after the end of the fight a few hours ago. Naruto heard, but didn't pay any attention to it, as he whipped another shirt out of his pack with moves that were definitely not as controlled as he should've kept them, but damn.
Bitch just had to be difficult tonight.
At least the other bitch was paying rent and not waiting for him to become gurgly with blood loss before patching him up.
If Kyuubi didn't, then he'd have to ask Sakura, and she'd complain about doing overtime again. He glanced at the girl in the armchair, who hadn't even glanced up from the mission scrolls. Yeah, everyone got used to the outbursts – especially Sakura – and she was very pretty like that too, huddled and concentrating on an intellectual high-level task and all.
Naruto envisaged sulking until she looked up and paid attention to him, but shrugged the thought away. He was pretty sure he liked having her as a friend more anyway.
In the other armchair was a staring-at-the-nothingness Hyuuga Neji.
Naruto quickly looked away. Like hell he wanted to deal with that right now.
And he swore, if Kiba didn't stop snickering, he was going to rip his arms off and feed them to him.
Okay. Calming down now.
"Going somewhere, Naruto?" Sakura called out from behind her scrolls. She sounded distracted, which Naruto knew to be one hundred percent fake.
"Yeah," he acquiesced.
He'd have felt guilty, but he needed some air. Sasuke had locked himself in the bathroom, and after that afternoon, it was probably best for everyone involved if he didn't push.
He stole a glance at the Hyuuga heir, though. He still looked shell shocked.
Naruto inwardly winced. Yeah, obviously if your team got massacred you wouldn't be in a great shape afterwards. He supposed it might've made it slightly easier that it'd been just a team for the duration of the mission and not actually people he'd have cared about but, as he'd pointed to Sasuke, that didn't make them any less dead.
Oh, who was he kidding, he just didn't have the patience to deal with Sasuke bullshit tonight. Give it two hours and it'd have boiled over. He didn't intend on spending those two hours tensely with Sakura briskly taking care of the mission and Kiba not-watching her.
"Ice Princess not putting out?" Kiba asked with a smirk.
Naruto could have pointed out that anyone calling Sasuke that in his hearing range would soon find himself lacking several vital functions, but let it go. Kiba knew it as well as he did.
He didn't deny the implication, though.
"I'm in the doghouse again," he confirmed with a smile. He could play that game too.
And that never lasted long, but with the adrenalin from the fight still humming through him, staying scooped up here was out of the question. Sakura'd throw him out herself if he started pacing, which he was bound to do at some point. He simply wasn't much for staying immobile.
Kiba casually flipped him the finger.
"I hope for your sake everything will be back in order by tomorrow," Sakura dropped without even glancing up.
Naruto nodded. He knew that. Basically, he was giving both of them space.
Besides, just because Sasuke had (rather violently) turned his offer down to go to the house Naruto had told him about – how likely was that, one year since he'd discovered the place and Sasuke and he still hadn't been sent there at the same time? (And how sad that Naruto hadn't managed to nag him into making the trip to the town on their time?) – didn't mean Naruto had to deprive himself as well.
Okay, Naruto may have been slightly lecherous, especially when he'd mentioned Hinata. Trust Sasuke to get jealous over something like that, he thought with a mix of exasperation at his teammate's antics and annoyance at his own inability to see it coming.
"I'm going to get rid of the tension, I promise, Sakura-chan," he recited. Then he grinned. "I'd ask if you wanna come, but…"
"Still firmly on the side of heterosexual non-monetary sex, I'm afraid," Sakura said dryly, without a trace of the blush of embarrassment or the flush of anger that wouldn't have failed to bloom on her cheeks only a few years ago.
Naruto was torn about blaming Kakashi-sensei for it.
On the one hand, Sakura-chan's relaxing about anything relating to sex, gradual as she grew up, had certainly saved him from a number of painful encounters with her chakra-filled fist when he couldn't help himself and failed to remember that Sakura qualified as A Lady, and so that certain subjects were inappropriate in front of her. Not to mention that she'd pretty much given up on her claims of being A Lady.
On the other hand, he'd liked Sakura-chan's blush. He'd especially liked it when he'd been the one to put it there. But, hey, he guessed it couldn't be avoided – and when he felt himself becoming melancholy over the lack of violent reactions he got from her now, he reflected that having Sakura-chan as one of his best friends was great.
Also, if he were to be fair, the reverse was equally true; if he'd been told when he was fifteen that Sakura-chan would hook up with Kakashi-sensei, he'd have freaked out big time. They'd all grown more easy-going with time, Team Seven.
…Well, at least Sakura and he had.
"Right. Wanna come, dog-boy?" he grinned at Kiba.
The other ninja shifted in his seat, and sent a brief glance off to Sakura's side, before shaking his head with a jerk.
"No, I'll stay here. Low on funds," he explained.
The blond shrugged. "Whatever, man."
He was ninety percent convinced that there was more to it than Kiba's being perpetually penniless, but he let it go anyway – let him have his own headaches.
Unless Kiba owed her money, which – knowing her prohibitive rates – was likely enough. Sasuke had learnt it soon enough after he'd returned to Konoha; if you had to lose at poker, Sakura was the worst person in Konoha to do that with, since unlike Naruto, she had no qualm about ruthlessly ransacking your allowance and putting you in her debt for an undetermined but seemingly endless length of time. (Due to his obscene good luck, as Sakura complained, Naruto had been spared this indignity.)
"I'll come."
The voice stopped him dead in his tracks as he was reaching the door.
Over the last exchange, he'd managed to ignore the Hyuuga's unnerving presence, falling back into his usual easy banter with his team, all made easier by the Hyuuga's silence.
In truth, he wanted as little as possible to do with him. The Hyuuga heir rubbed him the wrong way in general, not to mention the fact that Sasuke had apparently taken an immediate, bone-deep loathing of the guy as soon as they'd met one another, at the chuunin exams practically ten years before.
And today…
The Hyuuga had just lost his team.
Naruto already knew he'd try and find the Hyuuga – Neji – out to talk. That simply couldn't be avoided. Their situations were vastly different – Neji's teammates on this mission weren't his genin team; Sasuke hadn't died – but the word team always rang somewhere deep within Naruto, not so much echoing as driving him.
And he didn't want to avoid it either. Sakura always joked that she may be the medic-nin, Naruto was the one whom something seemed to always compel to help people out. By beating them up, she amended with a sharp, diamond-brilliant little smile when someone deliberately tried to misunderstand her.
Irony aside, she had a point. It was just that the force moving him was frustration, an itch to grab the other person and shake them until they snapped out of it, at least as much as empathy.
Naruto still winced at that word, by the way. It was just that Sasuke's way of smirking the word made it sound so girly. Not necessarily in a bad way, either, Naruto thought who'd been around enough kunoichi to have learned a few things after all, just not in one he'd have ever expected to relate to him. Not in one he even wanted to have relating to him. He'd been accused of being clueless enough that he felt he'd earned that, at the very least.
And with the Hyuuga heir – it'd been like standing in front of a blank, smooth, disinterested wall.
Naruto hadn't even managed to muster enough frustration at his lack of a chink.
But now, Neji had lost his team. And his eyes when he looked at Naruto reminded him enough of the eyes of others. The blankness was jutting out like a mismatched piece in a puzzle, making the emotions stand out, jagged and naked.
Naruto crinkled his eyes in a grin.
"The girls are gonna love you," he announced.
Author:
runespoor7Rating: PG-13
Summary: series of unrelated drabbles/fics, based on "well, what if?"
Notes: remember this piece of crack? Well, there's more. (And I hinted at what pairings? 0_o?) pre-NejiHina.
previously: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
9A. work cont'd
Kiba snickered dirtily when Naruto stomped into the room, a thunderous expression on his face, with more blood on his tattered shirt than after the end of the fight a few hours ago. Naruto heard, but didn't pay any attention to it, as he whipped another shirt out of his pack with moves that were definitely not as controlled as he should've kept them, but damn.
Bitch just had to be difficult tonight.
At least the other bitch was paying rent and not waiting for him to become gurgly with blood loss before patching him up.
If Kyuubi didn't, then he'd have to ask Sakura, and she'd complain about doing overtime again. He glanced at the girl in the armchair, who hadn't even glanced up from the mission scrolls. Yeah, everyone got used to the outbursts – especially Sakura – and she was very pretty like that too, huddled and concentrating on an intellectual high-level task and all.
Naruto envisaged sulking until she looked up and paid attention to him, but shrugged the thought away. He was pretty sure he liked having her as a friend more anyway.
In the other armchair was a staring-at-the-nothingness Hyuuga Neji.
Naruto quickly looked away. Like hell he wanted to deal with that right now.
And he swore, if Kiba didn't stop snickering, he was going to rip his arms off and feed them to him.
Okay. Calming down now.
"Going somewhere, Naruto?" Sakura called out from behind her scrolls. She sounded distracted, which Naruto knew to be one hundred percent fake.
"Yeah," he acquiesced.
He'd have felt guilty, but he needed some air. Sasuke had locked himself in the bathroom, and after that afternoon, it was probably best for everyone involved if he didn't push.
He stole a glance at the Hyuuga heir, though. He still looked shell shocked.
Naruto inwardly winced. Yeah, obviously if your team got massacred you wouldn't be in a great shape afterwards. He supposed it might've made it slightly easier that it'd been just a team for the duration of the mission and not actually people he'd have cared about but, as he'd pointed to Sasuke, that didn't make them any less dead.
Oh, who was he kidding, he just didn't have the patience to deal with Sasuke bullshit tonight. Give it two hours and it'd have boiled over. He didn't intend on spending those two hours tensely with Sakura briskly taking care of the mission and Kiba not-watching her.
"Ice Princess not putting out?" Kiba asked with a smirk.
Naruto could have pointed out that anyone calling Sasuke that in his hearing range would soon find himself lacking several vital functions, but let it go. Kiba knew it as well as he did.
He didn't deny the implication, though.
"I'm in the doghouse again," he confirmed with a smile. He could play that game too.
And that never lasted long, but with the adrenalin from the fight still humming through him, staying scooped up here was out of the question. Sakura'd throw him out herself if he started pacing, which he was bound to do at some point. He simply wasn't much for staying immobile.
Kiba casually flipped him the finger.
"I hope for your sake everything will be back in order by tomorrow," Sakura dropped without even glancing up.
Naruto nodded. He knew that. Basically, he was giving both of them space.
Besides, just because Sasuke had (rather violently) turned his offer down to go to the house Naruto had told him about – how likely was that, one year since he'd discovered the place and Sasuke and he still hadn't been sent there at the same time? (And how sad that Naruto hadn't managed to nag him into making the trip to the town on their time?) – didn't mean Naruto had to deprive himself as well.
Okay, Naruto may have been slightly lecherous, especially when he'd mentioned Hinata. Trust Sasuke to get jealous over something like that, he thought with a mix of exasperation at his teammate's antics and annoyance at his own inability to see it coming.
"I'm going to get rid of the tension, I promise, Sakura-chan," he recited. Then he grinned. "I'd ask if you wanna come, but…"
"Still firmly on the side of heterosexual non-monetary sex, I'm afraid," Sakura said dryly, without a trace of the blush of embarrassment or the flush of anger that wouldn't have failed to bloom on her cheeks only a few years ago.
Naruto was torn about blaming Kakashi-sensei for it.
On the one hand, Sakura-chan's relaxing about anything relating to sex, gradual as she grew up, had certainly saved him from a number of painful encounters with her chakra-filled fist when he couldn't help himself and failed to remember that Sakura qualified as A Lady, and so that certain subjects were inappropriate in front of her. Not to mention that she'd pretty much given up on her claims of being A Lady.
On the other hand, he'd liked Sakura-chan's blush. He'd especially liked it when he'd been the one to put it there. But, hey, he guessed it couldn't be avoided – and when he felt himself becoming melancholy over the lack of violent reactions he got from her now, he reflected that having Sakura-chan as one of his best friends was great.
Also, if he were to be fair, the reverse was equally true; if he'd been told when he was fifteen that Sakura-chan would hook up with Kakashi-sensei, he'd have freaked out big time. They'd all grown more easy-going with time, Team Seven.
…Well, at least Sakura and he had.
"Right. Wanna come, dog-boy?" he grinned at Kiba.
The other ninja shifted in his seat, and sent a brief glance off to Sakura's side, before shaking his head with a jerk.
"No, I'll stay here. Low on funds," he explained.
The blond shrugged. "Whatever, man."
He was ninety percent convinced that there was more to it than Kiba's being perpetually penniless, but he let it go anyway – let him have his own headaches.
Unless Kiba owed her money, which – knowing her prohibitive rates – was likely enough. Sasuke had learnt it soon enough after he'd returned to Konoha; if you had to lose at poker, Sakura was the worst person in Konoha to do that with, since unlike Naruto, she had no qualm about ruthlessly ransacking your allowance and putting you in her debt for an undetermined but seemingly endless length of time. (Due to his obscene good luck, as Sakura complained, Naruto had been spared this indignity.)
"I'll come."
The voice stopped him dead in his tracks as he was reaching the door.
Over the last exchange, he'd managed to ignore the Hyuuga's unnerving presence, falling back into his usual easy banter with his team, all made easier by the Hyuuga's silence.
In truth, he wanted as little as possible to do with him. The Hyuuga heir rubbed him the wrong way in general, not to mention the fact that Sasuke had apparently taken an immediate, bone-deep loathing of the guy as soon as they'd met one another, at the chuunin exams practically ten years before.
And today…
The Hyuuga had just lost his team.
Naruto already knew he'd try and find the Hyuuga – Neji – out to talk. That simply couldn't be avoided. Their situations were vastly different – Neji's teammates on this mission weren't his genin team; Sasuke hadn't died – but the word team always rang somewhere deep within Naruto, not so much echoing as driving him.
And he didn't want to avoid it either. Sakura always joked that she may be the medic-nin, Naruto was the one whom something seemed to always compel to help people out. By beating them up, she amended with a sharp, diamond-brilliant little smile when someone deliberately tried to misunderstand her.
Irony aside, she had a point. It was just that the force moving him was frustration, an itch to grab the other person and shake them until they snapped out of it, at least as much as empathy.
Naruto still winced at that word, by the way. It was just that Sasuke's way of smirking the word made it sound so girly. Not necessarily in a bad way, either, Naruto thought who'd been around enough kunoichi to have learned a few things after all, just not in one he'd have ever expected to relate to him. Not in one he even wanted to have relating to him. He'd been accused of being clueless enough that he felt he'd earned that, at the very least.
And with the Hyuuga heir – it'd been like standing in front of a blank, smooth, disinterested wall.
Naruto hadn't even managed to muster enough frustration at his lack of a chink.
But now, Neji had lost his team. And his eyes when he looked at Naruto reminded him enough of the eyes of others. The blankness was jutting out like a mismatched piece in a puzzle, making the emotions stand out, jagged and naked.
Naruto crinkled his eyes in a grin.
"The girls are gonna love you," he announced.