OooOoOooO

"Calm Before the Storm" – Interlude

Shikamaru stared at him.

Those eyes a tad bit bewildered and a little amused. Naruto couldn't fault him though, if they were to actually change places, he would be crooning over the lazy boy with saccharine glee. So for now, he settled on being less pleased and as nonplussed as possible.

"So they're really that bad, eh?" He inquired curiously as he moved a wooden piece on the Shougi board.

Naruto suddenly snorted, stifling his giggles.

"Shika, Shika. You're asking the wrong question." The blonde said quietly as he idly made a countermove to Shikamaru's tactic, not even bothering to look at the board to know that he scored it right judging from the incessant tick under the Nara's eye.

He secretly took pleasure in annoying the other boy since the other hardly seemed fazed these days.

"…the better answer is more like it."

Naruto ignored the voice with perfect ease. The boy was quite pleased with himself that he was learning more of it as days droned on – it also helped that he had a lot of practice since the stupid fox wouldn't stop blabbering. What made her extremely chatty nowadays still eluded him as much as that thought disappointed him.

"The appropriate question is, why haven't you killed each other yet?" Shikamaru drawled distractedly as sweat rolled down his temple.

"And up to this day, the answer still remains a mystery to me." Naruto grinned at him toothily, the faint smell of sake undeniable in his breath. But the Nara was quite surprised that the blonde boy even bothered to be half-sober.

The brunette boy grunted unhappily as he found his move to be easily retaliated once again. And the blonde still hadn't bothered to look at the damn board.

"Is the answer that really hard? It's because you're a bunch of hopeless and pathetic idiots…" She growled within the recesses of his mind and he could picture those slitted crimson orbs rolling heavenward in mocked exasperation.

"Me thinks it's because I realized we're actually kind of funny. Give or take, Team Seven is amusing. Just ignore the fact that we'd rather throttle each other than someday admit that we care for each other. We're each others' mess. I don't even understand what I'm saying. Or why I'm saying it for this matter." Naruto voiced out rather slowly, as if he was reading it from a paper whose kanji was a bunch of incomprehensible scribbles to the naked eye.

"It's alright. I thought I had it hard then you suddenly go there and show me that my daily team experience was a mere field trip compared to yours. Ino nags me to hell. A lot. She bosses Chouji and I around while our sensei lets her take over. Chouji and sensei are fine, you've got three whole psychotic members on your hand. You'll survive." Those weren't words of comfort in the slightest, just mere opinion on his part.

They both knew that any attempts at comfort would only lead to unwanted discussions they weren't ready to trudge on yet.

"…this is really a great time to exchange the wonders of life." She stated wryly with a touch of sarcasm. "I hate humans and their way of talking in circles. Just make a point across already." She snorted inelegantly, a vibrant glower in her tone.

He was used to her insults, having endured it for the entirety of the month since that incident with the bathroom. He really hated it when she mentioned humans. Not because he was insulted but because she spoke of it as if they were nothing but space to be discarded so easily. It wasn't because of sympathy either for his fellows but rather the stupid irritating irony that she was only mentioning the things she disliked about him rather than humanity's race.

"You know Shika, even if given another chance, I discovered that I wouldn't trade those 'psychotic members' for another. They make life interesting and I always wanted something not boring. This team is certainly not boring." He smirked to himself as a deafening clack resounded in the room.

Dark eyes widened as he saw that he was once again defeated.

"I really, really despise you right now." The Nara stated with such straight face that the blonde might have believed him.

But Shikamaru's eyes lacked the icy, coldness that usually rang true with that declaration.

Only frustration and disbelief colored those dark irises and Naruto found it a little amusing and maybe a little bit bastard-ish in some ways of him to find it humorous. But somehow, the blonde found himself not caring at the moment. The boy brought him entertainment and whether friendship was or would be involved had yet to be determined.

"Oh come on! You don't mean that, Shika?" He whined loudly, feigning a crestfallen look.

There was that familiar killing intent lingering on his mind and the blonde suppressed it with a little difficulty since his mind was a little clouded from the alcohol. But he just pushed it out of the way, ignoring the strained silence that followed. He taught himself to better ignore it.

The blonde wasn't going to waste those self-imposed lessons for nothing.

Naruto was disappointed to note that Shikamaru only rolled his eyes.

"Baka."

"Beat me first in shougi then I'll reconsider."

"Troublesome."

"Let me get this straight," The blonde drawled as he squinted his eyes. "You got us a C-rank mission without asking for our permission. Which for the record is an absolutely horrible idea considering…our lack of dynamics." He yawed dramatically and had to suppress a grin when he saw Sakura's eyebrow twitch and Sasuke giving him a deadpan stare.

Kakashi ruffled his hair almost mockingly.

"That's right! My adorable little student's finally using his brain!" He praised cheerfully with the slightest hint of sarcasm.

Naruto swatted the hand away irately.

"Watch it, cyclops." He growled audibly, glaring up at the silver haired man with barely veiled annoyance.

"So," Sakura cut in with feigned delight. "Let me recall the mission coordinates for my two thick headed teammates who only seemed to register that we will be having a C-rank mission." She smiled at them almost indulgently but Naruto could clearly see the undertone of scorn in it. "It's supposed to be a simple mission. A message Hokage-sama wanted to be delivered to Sunagakure. And I don't know what crawled up our sensei's ass for letting us go to a C-rank diplomatic mission has yet to be answered."

Sasuke was now openly glaring at her for her not-so-subtle insult of his intelligence. He was the Rookie of the Year for a reason.

"If you have something to say, then say it to me, bitch." He snarled under his breath, eyes narrowing in anger as his fists clenched.

"I'm just saying that don't focus on the possible fight, focus on the mission. I could see it in your eyes, Sasuke-kun, you're itching to show off." She stated matter-of-factly as she crossed her arms over her chest and that seemed to piss off the Uchiha more than he let on.

"Why you–" The dark haired boy made a move to attack her but orange blocked his sight.

"Oh, teme, not that I enjoy stopping you from a possible funny show, but you see…" He paused as he grinned impishly, tilting his head. "I really, really like to get this over with. I'm still doubtful if Suna even has ramen so I'm going to be stuck between the rock and the hard place. Now, get that pole that's stuck in your ass out, alright?" His grin had turned toothy as white teeth gleamed.

The Uchiha tried to punch him but the blonde deftly avoided the blow.

"That was mean. I was only looking out for my ramen-loving self." He pouted as he crossed his arms behind his head. When the glare only strengthened, he laughed loudly.

"…Tch, that never gets old for some reason." That statement instantly halted his laughter.

And he found himself scowling. Once again. It had become a habit since he had been part of this team. And since the last argument he had with the fox. Though the expression didn't suit him according to Ayame-chan of Ichiraku's but then again, it may have just looked out of place to them.

"Boys. And idiots too. Why am I stuck with them?" Sakura lamented as she buried her face in her hands.

"You know, I'm an Elite Jounin Sakura-chan." Kakashi pointed out as his visible eye crinkled in a smile, orange book present on his hands.

She huffed at that.

"And that's actually supposed to mean something?" Emerald eyes glared up at the lone gray eye of her sensei.

Kakashi just chuckled.

"Hey, Naruto…?"

"What do you want?"

"You're a brat."

"Is there anything else?"

"Just sleep already, I eradicated the nightmares."

He scoffed weakly under his breath as he clutched the blanket tighter around his form, his body shivering with fever. A small smile formed on his lips as his eyelids closed, hoping for a dreamless and bloodless sleep this time. He wanted to say she was lying, like always. But it was hard when his mind was deliriously foggy like this.

"…for now."

AN: Thank you for those who reviewed for this story. I've got that inspiration back and since I haven't written for so long, I decided to start it up with this little interlude chapter. And I can assure you that more chapters will come then. :) Thanks again.