Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Road Less Travelled By ❯ Kabuto Schemes! Sasuke seeks Advice ( Chapter 11 )

Kabuto Schemes! Sasuke seeks Advice

 

Naruto walked down the streets of Konoha with a spring in his step on the way to Ichiraku. Life was good, tadpoles had legs, and he was getting to see his two closest friends while eating. It certainly made up for the frustration of failing to summon a real frog for the last three weeks. Not that he was going to tell any of this to Sasuke. Telling him my special technique for our fight would be dumb. And I really don't know what telling him that I'm a friend would do. Probably make us both uncomfortable and paranoid. Always seems to when the conversation turns that way. Probably why he starts insulting me more. Naruto grinned as he imagined Sasuke's head exploding from the phrase `I'm your friend'. Stupid Sasuke. Don't really understand why he's like that. Everyone in Konoha would love to be his friend, especially the girls, yet he pushes them all away. Maybe it's something to do with his family, why he has none and wants to kill his brother.

Naruto shook his head. I can't imagine wanting to do something like that. If I had a family I'd do everything I could to keep them safe, not to hurt them or kill them like Sasuke seems to want to do. I guess I'd feel about them the same way I do about Sasuke, and Sakura-chan, and Kakashi-sensei, and Iruka-sensei and even old man Hokage. He smiled a little. Guess the list has gotten longer. A year ago it would just've been old man Hokage, and maybe Iruka-sensei if he'd been nice to me lately.

Turning the corner he saw a familiar sight, causing his smile to widen even further. Sasuke was stood leaning against the wall of Ichiraku, arms folded and chin down, trying to ignore Sakura who seemed to be talking a mile a minute to him. Naruto thought he could see the faint trace of a smile on Sasuke's lips, even as he gave the impression that Sakura's talking was something to be ignored.

“Hey guys!” Naruto hurried over, grinning at them both. He thought he saw Sasuke's mouth twitch into a larger smile for a moment before scowling slightly.

Sakura advanced on him, looming over him slightly. “You're late, Naruto! Do you really think that keeping a lady waiting on a street corner is polite?”

“But Sakura-chan…” Naruto backed away as much as possible from her, holding his hands up in defence. “I'm not that late, and Sasuke was here with you to keep you company. Isn't that okay?”

Sakura kept advancing. “Lucky for me Sasuke-kun is a gentleman, and wouldn't dream of trying anything with a shy, fragile young lady like myself.” She turned back to Sasuke, smiling. “Of course if you wanted to try something with me, Sasuke-kun, I'm sure I'd only give token resistance.”

Sasuke snorted. You're a poor flirt, Sakura. Try it on someone who's interested. He moved away from the wall. “Let's get something to eat. I'm hungry.” He looked over at Naruto. “I thought I was supposed to be the one learning habits from Kakashi.”

Naruto blinked for a moment, trying to process the likely connotation of what Sasuke had said. “Heeey… are you saying I'm as late as Kakashi-sensei?” When he saw Sasuke nod faintly as he walked to the ramen stand it only infuriated him. With a low growl, Naruto ran at him, leaping towards him to tackle him to the ground and beat him until he said how sorry he was.

Sasuke, however, sidestepped the tackle without even looking at Naruto.

Naruto hit the ground hard, and propped himself up on his arms spitting dirt. “Jerk!”

Sasuke turned back and offered a hand up. “Idiot.” It seemed like Naruto would refuse the hand up for a moment, but he then reached out and let Sasuke help him up.

Sakura came over and started slapping at Naruto's clothes, trying to dislodge the dust he had picked up from the road. “Honestly, Naruto. Rolling around in the dirt, getting filthy. Can't you be more respectable, like Sasuke-kun?”

“But Sakura-chan…”

Sasuke rolled his eyes and pushed up the curtain over the entrance to the Ichiraku ramen house. Looks like another noisy evening with them both. A slow, slight smile spread across his face. This should be interesting, and much better than silence.

 

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Things were not going according to plan as far as Kabuto was concerned. He agreed very much with Orochimaru's assessment that somehow Naruto was changing Sasuke, and making him less inclined to their point of view.

Or, as Orochimaru-sama described it, Sasuke-kun is being dyed to Naruto-kun's colour rather than his. Kabuto resisted the urge to sigh. Such an open display of frustration was unbecoming in Orochimaru's top spy. What I first took as Kakashi's great mistake has now become my biggest problem. I had thought that with Sasuke-kun returning to Konoha so regularly it would be easy to insert doubts about Konoha into his mind, and to try to coax him into using the superb seal that Orochimaru-sama gave him. Having him willingly meet with those that I'm trying to separate him from has made my task that much more difficult. He shook his head and shifted position slightly to watch where Naruto was telling some story and waving his arms around to illustrate his point. Sasuke's body language showed that he was actively listening to Naruto and he was amused, although Kabuto doubted that it would be apparent to anyone not skilled in reading people. He's willingly meeting up with his team, bonding with them, and enjoying their company. Obviously Kakashi's faith in Sasuke-kun was not misplaced and perhaps a different force will need to be applied to make Sasuke-kun bend to Orochimaru-sama's plans. He smiled as Sakura reached out to hit Naruto around the back of the head for some comment, then lost the smile as he saw Sasuke's shoulders convulse slightly.

He's laughing, he realised. Sasuke-kun is laughing at them playing. It's slight, and short, but he's laughing with them. That means that he's emotionally involved with them, and it ties him to Konoha. I'll have to break that bond, and quickly if Orochimaru-sama wants him to go with him when everything here is over. Just pushing Naruto slightly towards jealousy hasn't done enough, and instead of them moving further apart, they're drawing closer. Maybe if I throw my support more definitely behind Sasuke-kun and snub Naruto-kun it'll escalate and they'll break apart by themselves. He adjusted his glasses. If not, we can always go for a straight kidnap. He moved away from the shadows towards the warm light spilling from Ichiraku, placing an unassuming smile on his face.

 

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“So then,” said Naruto, leaning forwards over his empty bowl and turning to first Sasuke's and then Sakura's eager and horrified faces. “Ero-sennin goes over to this hot chick, right? And she's all `Hi old man, are you lost?' and he goes `Only in your eyes, pretty lady,' and she goes and slaps him so hard that the sound echoes off the valley walls!”

Sakura snorted and shook her head. “Good thing too, with a pick up line like that. I'd've done more than slap the pervert.” She shoved Naruto, rocking him half off his stool. “You better not be learning anything other than jutsu from him. Else I'll be having a word with both of you.”

Sasuke shook his head. “Naruto isn't going to be learning from him, he's going to be teaching him all the idiotic henge jutsu he's thought up over the years.” He drained his bowl, ignoring the odd look Naruto was giving him for joining in and the slowly reddening face of Sakura.

Naruto shook himself slightly, and ordered another bowl before turning back to Sasuke. “And what makes you think I'm not learning good stuff? You wait until I'm kicking you all over the arena, then we'll see who's the cool one.”

Kabuto stepped up to the bar, smiling softly. “You shouldn't kick team-mates, Naruto-kun. A surgical strike is much better.”

“Kabuto-san!” Naruto bounded off his stool to hug Kabuto happily. “You should join us for dinner.” He blinked, and realised that Sakura and Sasuke were watching him. “That is okay, isn't it guys? Kabuto-san did tell us stuff for the first exam and all.”

“I suppose so,” said Sakura. She looked at Sasuke to see his response but Sasuke only grunted, his face back to polite disinterest. Sasuke-kun, wondered Sakura. Why are you suddenly closed to us again? Why won't you be open with people? Why can't you smile where just anyone would see it?

Kabuto sat calmly, smiling at them all. “It's good to see you together happily like this. What with Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun as rivals for the exam.”

“We've agreed not to talk about that,” said Sasuke, not looking towards Kabuto.

Naruto nodded. “We'd just end up arguing, and probably fighting.” He grinned at Sasuke. “And then I'd have no choice but to beat you to a pulp, without there being any judges around to see how great I am.”

“You'd have to catch me first,” retorted Sasuke, then paused, trying not to let his worry show on his face. Shit. I hope Naruto doesn't realise I just gave him information on what I've been training in.

Kabuto smiled. “I'm sure that Sasuke-kun will be more than able to defend himself against you, Naruto-kun. That is, assuming you can beat Hyuuga Neji.” He straightened his glasses slightly. “He held Sasuke-kun's position last year as top graduate.” He pulled some cards out and shuffled through them, before pulling out Naruto's card. “And you were the class dunce according to my information. Quite a distance you've climbed to reach this peak.”

Naruto puffed his chest out, grinning. “And I'm not done climbing yet. I'm gonna make it all the way up there.” He pointed in the vague direction of the mountain where the faces of the previous Hokage were carved. “You just wait.”

“I look forward to it,” said Kabuto with an indulgent smile.

Sasuke watched him order some food. Something isn't right. From what I've heard, that Gaara is the most dangerous, yet Kabuto seems more worried about Naruto's fight. His language is suggesting that I'll have no trouble in my fight while Naruto will struggle, but with his knowledge, there is no way that he doesn't know my level as well as Naruto's. He leant against the counter and rested his chin on his hands, tilting his face forwards to let his hair shade his eyes. Maybe he's trying something. Is he friends with one of the other Konoha ninjas in the exam and trying to scare Naruto out?

“Are you all right, Sasuke-kun?” asked Sakura, picking up on Sasuke's tension. She leant close to him, and spoke quietly. “Kabuto-san is just being nice. Can't you try to smile for him like you do for us?”

“I don't smile.”

Sakura smiled and withdrew a little. “Okay, if you say so.”

Kabuto looked over, then did a double take as he looked at Sasuke. “Are you okay? That's a pretty large bruise on your neck. Do you want me to take a look at it?”

Sasuke stiffened, then moved his hand to his neck, trying to mask the seal. “It's nothing you should be concerned over, Kabuto.”

Sakura gave what she hoped was a winning smile. “He's training for the chuunin exam, Kabuto-san. Surely it's not that odd to have bruises.” She leaned in closer to Sasuke, putting a hand onto his shoulder to try to help cover the seal. She felt Sasuke's muscles tense under her hand and she was grateful that he didn't try to shrug her off. Not that being able to do this isn't nice, but I'm doing it to protect him not to try to get closer to him. She leant into him, resting her head on his shoulder, trying to give the impression of them having a relationship. “Sasuke-kun works too hard sometimes. Makes him so tired he makes stupid mistakes sometimes.” She moved her hands over his, moving her head to cover his neck. Come on, Sasuke-kun, just play along.

“Yeah.” Sasuke kept his face still, trying not to show how uncomfortable Sakura's proximity was making him. “Lucky Kakashi noticed I wasn't paying attention and didn't cause me serious injury.” The words felt forced to him, and went against his nature and self-cultivated image of control and perfection.

Kabuto smiled kindly. “Well I'm sure it was only a momentary lapse. When the final exam comes, you'll show why the Uchiha clan were so well respected.”

Sakura felt Sasuke flinch at that, although she saw no change in his expression or outward movement. Sasuke-kun? What's wrong with that? I know that your clan has gone quiet, since there was that accident or whatever that cut the numbers down, but surely you must be over that by now. She moved her fingers in what she thought were soothing circles over his hands, and resisted the urge to move her head away from covering the seal to check on his expression.

Kabuto kept his expression the same, but inwardly gloated. You're hardly a good spy, Sakura-san. You've given off over the top signals of affection, and Sasuke-kun isn't responding to them beyond discomfort at close contact. He accepted his order and started to eat. I'm also sure that reminding Sasuke-kun of the huge loss and burden he carries will make him less inclined to see Konoha as a loving family. With luck, my words will eat at both Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun and taint whenever they meet here again. Sakura-san is already widening the rift with her silly charade.

“Hey, hey, Kabuto-san,” chirped in Naruto, unaware of Kabuto's thoughts. “Are you going to watch the exam, and cheer for me?” He watched Kabuto turn his attention to him, and grinned. Now Sakura-chan can let go of Sasuke, cause she doesn't have to hide the seal anymore.

Kabuto rested his chopsticks on his bowl. “Of course, Naruto-kun. I'll cheer for you louder than anyone else in the arena, even when you go out of the tournament.”

“You'll have to cheer even louder when I win,” grinned Naruto. He saw Sasuke and Sakura draw apart out of the corner of his eye, and Sasuke's worried expression. He really can't like having Sakura-chan hugging him like that. Totally weird. I'd love her to do that to me. “I'm gonna show them all.”

Kabuto nodded. “I'm sure you will, Naruto-kun.” He patted him on the shoulder consolingly before rising from his stool, leaving a pile of coins next to his drained bowl. “I hope I see you again before that, though. I much prefer meeting with you when I'm not working at passing a horrible exam.” He turned his attention to Sakura and Sasuke. “Thanks for your company. Sorry for crashing your date together with Naruto-kun.”

Sakura smiled at him. “Thank you, Kabuto-san.” Sasuke just nodded and grunted slightly.

Kabuto smiled back, then left. He kept his act up until he had gotten back to his apartment, and he carefully checked for observers before he allowed himself to scowl. I don't know if it'll be enough. Sakura-san's foolish act may well have driven a wedge into the group using romance, but they're young enough to let their hormones rule them. Naruto will take foolish risks to win now just so he can prove himself, but I may have tipped my hand to Sasuke-kun. I can just hope that when we make our move, and I offer Sasuke-kun a means for his revenge that he will accept it. Else I'll have to kidnap him, and risk harming the very thing Orochimaru-sama wishes to gain.

 

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Sakura tried not to skip down the streets of Konoha as she made her way to the Ichiraku Ramen. Sasuke hadn't tried to snap at her four days previously, and had even mumbled something approaching thanks for trying to hide the cursed seal from Kabuto's prying eyes. In all, she was still over the moon from him not pushing her away for it. The only reason she wasn't skipping was the fact that her legs felt jelly-like enough after all her training, without her adding extra strain on them.

Meeting both Sasuke and Naruto at Ichiraku had started to become a highlight of her time. It most certainly beat coming home tired and battered, only to have her parents fuss over her `pushing herself too hard'. Through meeting up she had found that she could now tolerate Naruto's ever energetic grinning, and that he wasn't so annoying after all. She had also realised that while Sasuke would defend her and watch her back during missions, he had no interest in her as a girl and seemed reluctant to engage with anyone. She had her own ideas on why that was, mostly a suspicion that Sasuke had lost someone important to him when the Uchiha clan had collapsed and mysteriously disappeared from public view. Yet, despite that, she could see him starting to reach out to both her and Naruto and trusting them as much as she would trust them both.

Plus he talks to us now sometimes, tries to tell jokes rather than just telling us off. She moved off the side street, and on to the busy main street packed with people heading out for the evening. From the noise coming from the bar she guessed that a lot of missions had just finished, and that many chuunin and jounin were out celebrating. I hope that we'll all celebrate together once the exam is done. I'd be so happy for them if Sasuke-kun and Naruto became chuunin, but somehow I can't see them as having the patience for the rank. Naruto is kind and never gives up, but he's never yet had a plan that didn't get us into worse trouble. Sasuke-kun… She paused as an uncomfortable realisation hit her. Sasuke-kun isn't good at planning for anyone else but himself. He doesn't pay enough attention to others to know their strengths and weaknesses, so he can't incorporate them into his plans easily. She shook her head. Guess Naruto was onto something when he called Sasuke-kun a selfish bastard. Coming up to Ichiraku she could see Sasuke waiting for her and, unlike usual, was stood watching for her, rather than leaning against a wall and watching the world walk past him from behind shadowed eyes. He spotted her quickly, and moved to intercept her.

“Sakura.” He nodded to her slightly.

Sakura tilted her head. “Hey Sasuke-kun.” She considered asking if he was okay, but judging from the fact that it was only because she knew his habits that she was concerned, she decided against it. After all, his expression is the same as always. If I didn't know him better I'd think he was bored while waiting for us. She smiled. And it's only since we've been meeting here that I've learnt to read him that much. He's not a statue to me anymore. “Have you seen Naruto yet? I was running behind because my mother was trying to interrogate me. You know how parents are.”

“Whatever.” Sasuke kept his face immobile at the familiar sting. You'd think it'd get easier the longer I was on my own. He looked up and down the street. “The idiot is late again,” he said irritably.

Sakura shifted slightly. “You know, Sasuke-kun, maybe you shouldn't call him an idiot. It can't help our teamwork or anything.” She watched him tilt his head up to glare at her, but she refused to flinch away. “He's not that much of an idiot, Sasuke-kun. He got us out of that trap in the second exam, and it was his ideas that gave us the plan.” Come on, she mentally pleaded. Give him some respect. That's what we both should've done a while ago. She watched Sasuke, smiling somewhat. “Please, Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke almost dismissed her request, purely from the fact that she was taking a pleading tone. It always rubbed him up the wrong way when girls used that to try to get what they wanted, but something about ignoring it for that reason didn't feel right. Usually he hated trusting something as vague and unsubstantial as a feeling rather than logic, but in this case he thought it might be something that his mind hadn't yet put together in conscious logic that made him think that he should honour the request. And he is still keeping my respect as an ally, so maybe I should cultivate the same with him.

He nodded to Sakura. “Okay. If he's civil to me, I'll be the same back. But,” he added, seeing Sakura's happy smile, “If he insults me, I can call him much worse things. I just hope he doesn't disappoint you.”

“He won't,” said Sakura with conviction. “Honestly, if you two just stopped trying to bait each other so much, you'd really do better as a team.” She moved closer to him, but stopped just outside of Sasuke's personal space, not wanting to make him as uncomfortable as they had been in their last meeting. She smiled slightly, and started looking around for Naruto. “With all our meetings here, I feel I've gotten to know you both a little better, Sasuke-kun. At this rate, I'm not sure who I'd cheer for when you and Naruto fight in the second round.”

Sasuke seemed to consider this for a moment before speaking again. “Cheer for Naruto,” he said simply, still looking for the missing third member of the team within the crowd.

Sakura blinked. Sasuke-kun wants me to cheer for Naruto and not for him? “Why do you want that, Sasuke-kun? Surely you can't want me to favour him over you?”

Sasuke shook his head. “It's not that. From what I understand, other than us he has the Hokage who will be on a high balcony and unable to show favouritism, and Iruka and that Konohamaru brat who will both be at the academy. He'll have no one except you to cheer him on I suspect.” And the fact that I'm the last of the Uchiha clan means that most attention will be on my fight, and his will merely be a pleasing distraction to them. “Be his friend when we're in the arena, because I won't be able to.”

He looked away from her pointedly, and Sakura was surprised to see a slight flush across his face. He's embarrassed to say things like that, she realised. Sasuke-kun thinks I'll think less of him for worrying about Naruto's feelings.

“Oh, and Sakura,” said Sasuke, disrupting her train of thought. “I'd like to know what you saw my opponent do in the preliminaries. Kakashi won't tell me anything about this `Gaara of the Desert' and…” He trailed off and shrugged.

You're nervous? guessed Sakura. I suppose I would be too with that sand freak as my opponent. She thought back to the fight between Gaara and Lee that had practically destroyed the hall floor. I don't want Sasuke-kun to end up mangled like poor Lee-san did, but I just can't think of anything that might be useful to him. She sighed. “It was terrible until Lee took his weights off his legs and started moving faster. Before that, any move that he made had been blocked with this wall of sand from that strange gourd that Gaara carries.” She moved a bit closer to Sasuke and took his arm, tugging gently. “Come on. Let's go get some food while we talk about this.” She waited for Sasuke to look up before smiling at him slightly and letting his arm go. “Naruto won't mind, I'm sure. He eats so fast that he'll still beat us.”

Sasuke's gloomy expression lifted a little and he nodded. “Okay. But you're still going to tell me everything you saw.”

Sakura nodded, walking towards the ramen bar, when a thought occurred to her. “Sasuke-kun? Why is this bothering you now? Why not at the start of your training, or just before the fight? Why did it come to mind?”

“Later, Sakura. When Naruto is here too.” He held the curtain over the entryway back, and let Sakura enter first. “This information is important, and I don't want to miss getting it because of something I tell you.”

Sakura tried not to blush at the chivalrous gesture, and moved to sit in their usual spot. “Guess so. The last thing I'd want would be to have to constantly explain myself, when all I wanted was information.” She smiled at the owner and placed an order for her usual choices before turning back to Sasuke. “I'll tell you everything I can remember, Sasuke-kun, but I'm not sure how much help I can be.”

Sasuke snorted. “You sell yourself short. You've got good analytical skills if nothing else, and are pretty good at picking up how a jutsu is used.” He rubbed at his neck tiredly, working his head round and sat next to her. “And I trust your judgement in this case. You don't have some agenda like half the village seems to with this fight.” He tried to ignore Sakura's happy expression by placing his own order. Figures she'd take that as some sort of complement.

“I guess the top rookie of the year against the sand ninja the Kazekage is rumoured to have an interest in would create a lot of interest amongst the feudal lords,” said Sakura thoughtfully. “After all, he must be something special to get that kind of interest, and you're a member of the Uchiha clan so…”

Sasuke shrugged. “More like a lot of money will be passing hands.” He pulled a set of chopsticks from the pot and started fiddling with them. “Betting is a favoured hobby amongst those of a certain rank.” He looked at Sakura. “That's not what concerns me though, Sakura. I heard what happened to Lee, and from our… altercation before the first exam I know that he's no push over. This Gaara of the Desert must be someone exceptional to have so completely destroyed Lee's future chances as a shinobi.” And I don't want my life as a shinobi to be over before I've managed to kill Itachi. Sasuke had to keep his hand from twitching and snapping the chopsticks in his hands at that thought. Gaara is dangerous. In order for me to be dangerous to him, I need to find a weakness. “So please, Sakura, tell me what you can.”

Sakura nodded slowly. “Okay, Sasuke-kun. I'll try my best.” She cleared her throat and straightened into what Sasuke recognised as her lecturing pose. “Gaara's chief weapon seems to be sand that he keeps within the large gourd on his back. It seems imbued with chakra and reacts to his will without the need of direct hand seals.” She saw Sasuke raise a worried eyebrow at that, and privately agreed with him. No hand seals mean less warning for him being about to try a move. Not useful. “It would strike out as arms or tendrils at people who threatened him, and could even wrap around them to try to choke or throw them. It also seemed to absorb and regurgitate any projectile weapons thrown at him. He seemed to use the sand as a double layered shield. A large, gross shield for deflection, and a second as a kind of armour or second skin to stop any blows that get past the first shield. Lee-san was unable to get pass the first shield until he took his weights off.”

Sasuke rubbed his jaw absently in memory of the kick Lee had landed on him. “I assume he was using weights to improve his speed, strength and stamina, but I can't see how that would make that much of a difference. If he couldn't penetrate the shield then such a small boost would have little to no effect.”

“He dropped the weights ten metres and they made craters five metres across, Sasuke-kun.”

Sasuke was extremely glad he wasn't trying to eat the bowl of ramen that had just been placed in front of him. He rather thought it might have ended up spat back over the waitress that had just served him. He just blinked and looked at Sakura. “Are you serious?” And if so, I'm lucky still to have my jaw attached!

Sakura nodded slightly. “Gai-sensei said that Lee-san used those weights to train for greater speed. It was pretty obvious when he started fighting again that he was telling the truth. Lee-san was now dodging the sand that was before striking out at him, and even moving faster than the sand could form into that outer shield I told you about.”

This is all starting to make a crazy amount of sense, thought Sasuke. Kakashi teaching me taijutsu that seems very reminiscent of Lee's, and how to convert my chakra into a speed boost. He's been preparing me for the fight against Gaara, but didn't want to share his observations when I asked him. Was this his intention? To force me to talk with Sakura and Naruto to get information, rather than just giving it to me? Just what game is he playing with me? He jabbed angrily at his food. Does that mean that not telling me and possibly getting me killed was some stupid `teamwork' ploy? Was that Ichiraku ticket he gave me just so that I'd run into Naruto?

“Sasuke-kun? Is everything okay?” Sakura watched him worriedly as he poked aggressively at the floating noodles. “Did I say something wrong?”

Sasuke snorted. “No. Just realised that Kakashi has been manipulating us into meeting up, making moves behind our backs. As if I wouldn't have met up with you and Naruto on my own. Interfering bastard.” He ignored Sakura's gasp at his disrespect. “I now understand why he's been teaching me. We're going to have words when I catch up with him tomorrow.” He looked up at the flash of orange out of the corner of his eye, and saw Naruto making his way towards them. “Don't tell Naruto,” he said to Sakura. “He doesn't need to get his life complicated by all this.”

Sakura nodded, not really understanding. “Okay, Sasuke-kun. I won't tell him what you think Kakashi-sensei did.” She turned to wave and smile at Naruto. “Naruto! You took so long that we started without you.”

Naruto hurried up, smile on his face and trying to glare daggers at Sasuke. “You trying to put a move on my girl while I'm not here, Sasuke?”

Sakura hit him soundly round the back of the head. “Honestly, Naruto, when is it going to get into your thick skull that I'm most certainly not your girl?” She turned and smiled at the amused-looking owner. “Naruto will be having his usual I'm sure, mister.”

“Scary,” muttered Naruto, moving to sit next to Sasuke, still rubbing the back of his head. “How can she go from mad to cheery like that?”

Sasuke shrugged over his bowl. “Must be a girl thing.”

“I heard that,” replied Sakura, glaring at them both good naturedly. “And I'll stop doing that when you both stop doing things to make me mad.” She picked up her own chopsticks and resumed eating. “So if Naruto is here, Sasuke-kun, why don't you tell us why you wanted to know about Gaara? Then we can see if Naruto can remember anything useful to help you out?”

Sasuke nodded slowly. I doubt I'd get much more of use out of them. I can call Kakashi on his schemes now and ask him for a straight answer. “I met Gaara while we were out training. He had come to spy on me, or kill me before the exam, one or the other. Kakashi spotted him.” He watched for their reactions. Sakura looked distinctly nervous about that, and even Naruto seemed at least vaguely worried. “He made several remarks about fighting me, and that we were the same because I had the same eyes as him. Eyes full of hate and murderous intent.”

Sakura tried to smile. “Well you have to admit, Sasuke-kun, when you get intent on something your eyes do kind of go lifeless, but that's just because you're concentrating so much. It's a bit creepy when they do, but it's not your fault.”

Sasuke snorted at that. “Yeah. Sure.” He looked at Naruto, who just met his gaze with a concerned expression on his face. “He said that I was his prey.”

“That doesn't sound good, Sasuke,” said Naruto. “That Gaara isn't right in the head somehow. He kept going after the fuzzy eyebrows even after he'd broken his arm and leg. He didn't want to quit until the fuzzy eyebrows was a smear on the arena floor.” I don't want that to happen to you. I can't count the smiles of a dead guy. “You better be damn sure that you're ready in that arena if he's calling you that already. You've been in the hospital once before thanks to this exam.”

Sasuke looked away sharply. “Thanks for your concern. I'm not about to take someone who's as powerful as you and Sakura say lightly.”

Naruto grinned at him. “You better not, Sasuke. I want you in one piece for our fight.” His grin widened as the bowl of ramen was placed in front of him. “Thanks, old man. Itadakimasu!”