Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Small Gods ❯ Rain Away Walks ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author's Note: Beware all those who enjoy a simple plot. I give none.

It was raining again. The sky had darkened to a muddled gray hours before and the water was making a mess of the dirt packed road. Naruto’s shoulders sagged under the immense weight of his pack as he trudged along. Why, why had he taken so much with him? It wasn’t smart. He could easily be attacked with this much dragging him down. The only consolation was that nearly all of him stayed dry due to the enormous dimensions of the pack. He was surprised that he hadn’t keeled over in exhaustion days ago when he’d first started out on this miserable trip. But that was the nature of the young man. Endurance was his most prominent quality. Even if the rest of the world laid down and gave up he would still be looking for a way out, fighting against all the odds. Luck seemed to follow Naruto wherever he went, like a patron guardian. (Which is perhaps the reason why Tsunade has no talent for gambling whatsoever [Naruto had all the luck].)
The more he walked in this wet weather the more his legs felt like lead. He was annoyed. The rain was annoying. Getting stuck in the muck was annoying. Getting annoyed was annoying.
“I hate this!” Naruto shouted out from under the pack. Somehow the verbalization of his irritation wasn’t as satisfying as he thought it would be. He bowed his head and sighed. There was no point in wasting precious energy, or getting sick for that matter. He’d find a shelter nearby, hopefully. Trudging along with his sodden pace Naruto’s mind swirled with memory. Rain was good for memory. It made you think of things that usually took the back shelf of the brain. Mostly unpleasant those thoughts were, and that was good. They reminded him of his goals, and why it was so important not to forget himself.
There was the day Sarutobi-sama was killed; when Sasuke…left; the time Sakura refused to speak to him for a month after he announced he was no longer going to chase Sasuke; the scorn of the villagers; the death of Haku and Zabuza; many things went through Naruto’s mind. So much memory, so little a world it dwelled in. Naruto smiled ruefully. He spotted an outcropping of rock ahead. It would do, for a shelter. Luck, whatever it might be, was a fickle thing. You didn’t push luck or it shoved back. So you took what you got and you dealt with it. Naruto shrugged the pack off his shoulders and plopped down in the damp soil under the rocks. Life was everything, and so was dying. So he lived. Naruto lived as well as he could. Luck gave him a good mind so he could remember the bad for the better, and a larger heart so he could understand why. Naruto had the ‘mysterious power’ called good humor, so he understood; because he was a good person (as luck would have it), he was given the largest amount of obstacles in life as possible.
He grinned.
He could live with that.

Lady Luck and Goddess Nemesis must have been having a grand old time up in the heavens, because all hell was pouring loose. Naruto had fallen asleep a few hours ago in order to regain some energy for the rest of his journey. There was only one day left until he crossed over into Suna territory but…
“Why am I soaking wet!?” His disbelieving voice reverberated through the rock hollow. Sometimes it just didn’t pay to rest, especially when the wind has a habit of shifting the rainfall in the direction of a previously dry (damp) area. To be blunt, during his nap the wind reversed the fall-direction of the rain smack-dab into Naruto’s half-cave.
He plucked himself up with disgust. He was sixteen, he should know better. His previous good humor had dissipated with, it seemed, all the heat in his body as well. He was freezing. Teeth chattering, hands shaking, Naruto shouldered his pack once more. It settled onto sore muscles. He grimaced, and sneezed. Lovely.
“Heh, well that proves I’m still an idiot.” Naruto grumbled. He realized full well what that symptom meant in a place like this. Stupid, idiotic, gah! Being cold was easily remedied. Having a cold was not. Out in the wilderness there was no place to rest properly without physical strain. He was tired still. Even for a few hours of sleep there was hardly any difference in his energy levels. Hoo ha! Big surprise sleeping out in the rain. What had he been thinking…He could take a knife to the stomach and be right as---never mind, he’d be fine the next day. Give him sickness and things would get bad, really bad. It was the one thing that Naruto loathed above all loathsome things. He hated being sick. No time for training when you’re sick.
If only he had some medicine to take care of this mess. Eh, medicine? Sakura was a medic-nin. Sakura gave him something before he left. Sakura gave him a medical kit. The medical kit was in his pack. Naruto slapped his forehead. It hurt. Once again sloughing of his pack Naruto bent down and rummaged through it. Ramen (food, wonderful food!), ramen, more ramen, ramen again, sharp things, soft things (sleeping bag and tent, bah!), kunai, ---med-kit!
“Thank you Sakura!” He shouted happily. One med-kit down, one cold to go, far away if possible. Naruto set the kit next to the pack and opened it. There were the ointments, which he noticed with some surprise had the name Hyuuga inscribed on the top. Hinata must have offered to help put the kit together, she was the only Hyuuga clan member who would have even touched anything belonging to him (besides Neji). Naruto felt a small smile grace his face. It was nice to know she cared, even if he didn’t know her that well. Next to the ointments were a mesh of surgical silk thread and slim needles for stitching open wounds. Antiseptic rested between two bottles of cough medicine. That was all he needed. Grape or plain? Naruto didn’t like grapes. He uncapped the plain medicine and sniffed at the mouth of the bottle. It was a nasty smell. Scrunching up his expression he poured out a capful and hocked it into the back of his throat. The nasty smell had a nasty taste. Naruto decided not to take anymore of the syrup, for now at least. His nerves jittered for a moment in reaction to the awful tang on his tongue.
“Bleh!” He spat out. Naruto hated taking medicine, but he hated being sick even more. So he rode out the vile medicine without further complaint and repacked the kit. That was the end of that potential fiasco for the moment. Tomorrow would tell whether or not he was still in danger of being ill or not. Naruto lifted the monstrous back pack, again, and eased it onto his aching shoulders once more and set off into the slowly lightening rain.
He swore there was a bit of blue sneaking out from under a cloud.