The Shipbuilder

Chapter 6: The date

The young couple walked together quietly for a few moments as they made their way from the theatre area and toward her room. On the way, much to Asami's amusement, the blond had accidentally run into two or three people, even tripping over a dog that had somehow made its way onboard along with a narrow-sighted old man.

Naruto grimaced as he eyed the big hound dog. He hated dogs. He wasn't sure why, but he never got along with them. He remembered Jiraiya kept a giant toad in his yard and Naruto would sometimes pick it up and play with it when he went over. That frog was probably the closest thing he's ever had as a pet, not to mention a few plants that he kept in his room by the window sill.

Meanwhile, while Naruto was struggling to get the dog to stop gnawing and slobbering on his pant leg, Asami cooed happily and asked if she could pet the frisky mutt. Naruto eyed the dog enviously as all of a sudden the dog was occupying all of her attention.

As she kneeled down, she turned to Naruto and gently but quickly shoved her bag in his chest and asked, "Please?!" He looked down at the bag and grasped it almost out of reflex, but nodded his head and muttered a resigned, 'sure.'

"You really like dogs, huh?" Naruto asked, idly feeling the soft leather of the bag for a moment before noting how swiftly the dog took to her attention and steadily becoming annoyed at how well-behaved it was acting all of a sudden when it realized she was calling it.

Asami smiled at the dog and it turned to look up at her just before she cupped his face lovingly and then pet the top of his head, scratching gently behind his ear. "The friendly ones!"

After a few more moments, Asami stood up and bowed to the owner of the dog, apologizing once again for not paying more attention as they walked around the ship. Naruto meanwhile was shaking his head and palming his face with one hand in embarrassment. "Four times in one day…" he mutters. Asami heard this and stifled a snort, trying to hold in the laughter at Naruto's strange misfortune.

"Oh, you're alright sweetie. Your boyfriend might want to get some glasses. Freakin' idiot! C'mon son! Watch where you goin'!" He said this with a scowl on his face, whacking Naruto on the side of the leg with his cane as he reached down and leashed his dog again. And with that, the old man and his dog walked on, leaving Asami blushing, covering her mouth as she tried desperately to hold back the laughter with Naruto still glaring at the dog, surprisingly more upset with the dog than the owner who just insulted and hit him, as they walked away.

Finally Asami let herself start cracking up and grabbed Naruto by his jacket as she used him to keep her balance as the laugh carried down her body to her belly as she doubled over slightly. She shook her head in disbelief and blurted out, "He was ruthless! And you… you ran into… oh god… ha ha… I'm running out of breath… oh… you ran into the dog… like really hard too… actually… he he… are you ok?! Ha ha... I'm sorry… I'm sorry, I know it's not funny… I'm so awful... " There were tears breaking in the corner of her eyes. Her makeup was smearing a little too. She eyed him for a bit before cracking up again, laughing even harder.

Naruto saw that she was literally in tears at his expense and couldn't help but laugh along with her. Naruto just shook his head in disbelief, a giant smile on his face and he sighed, wrapping his arms around the girl as she gripped him tightly by his jacket.

Naruto, somewhat surprised that he wasn't hyperventilating at the close contact, said, "You are so mean to me…"

Asami laughed harder, shaking her head. "I'm sorry… I just wasn't expecting that to happen. I'm pretty sure you hit your face when you tripped over the dog, or was I seeing things?" She spoke mostly into his chest and clavicle, her grip on him turning into a soft grasp as they leaned into one another a little more.

Neither one of them knew what was going on, but somehow the contact they shared here was something both of them needed. It wasn't quite romantic, but it was friendly, warm and felt secure, for both of them. So, instead of worrying about their proximity or stupid things like relationships, they just enjoyed the moment.

Naruto, meanwhile, dodged the question. "Maybe dogs don't like my cologne…"

Asami was quiet for a moment before Naruto heard her take a deep breath. His face felt a bit warm as he realized that she was breathing in his scent.

"Mmmm… no, I don't think it's the cologne…"

Naruto's ears were red at this point.

"So, are you going to hold me like this forever?" she wondered aloud. "Can I have my bag? He he… thank you."

When he finally released her from the hug and handed her back her bag, she smiled and spun around with a spring to her step. "My room is in the hallway up ahead. Let's go get those drinks and… talk." She punctuated the word 'talk' by turning to extend her hand out to him.

Naruto gulped and nodded as he reached out to her. The relaxed and very comfortable look on her face cleared up and suddenly she was walking again as she lead him to her room.

Earlier, while they were walking from the stage area and the bar, when Naruto wasn't busy tripping over dogs and random people, Asami had taken the quiet moments to tell him a bit about her past and about the company. She felt comfortable enough to talk to him about her father and even about her last relationship that failed spectacularly, but she felt some nagging suspicion that she was being too open with him and maybe sharing too much would scare him off. To her surprise, however, he shared a story about being bullied as a kid and how he used to deal with that sort of thing.

Most of the bullying was harmless, but there was one kid who would bully the hell out of him, to the point where Naruto didn't want to go outside anymore. He mentioned how he learned to fight to try and go after that bully and stop him for good, he actually wanted to kill that boy, but somehow at just the right moment he had run into Jiraiya.

Jiraiya was an old fisherman who hung out at a ramen stand that Naruto liked to go to from time to time. He had seen him before, but they had never spoken. Actually, Jiraiya had tried once, when his father first introduced them. Apparently Jiraiya was one of his pa's old teachers from back in the day, and showed him how to make a living out at sea. Jiraiya asked him about the determined look in his eyes, and listened to his story about how he was getting beat up nearly every day after school by a group of kids. Naruto didn't want to say anything at first, but Jiraiya bought him an extra bowl of ramen and so Naruto began spilling. He told him how he sought out someone to teach him to fight. That he was carrying a stone in a cloth so he could bash the bastard's head in if he had to.

Jiraiya told him that learning to fight wasn't going to change anything when it was four on one. Instead, he should work, then at least he'd have an excuse to get out of class early, because kids who work are given a free period at the end of the day.

The thought of him hurting a fly didn't cross Asami's mind before they talked, so she was surprised to hear this about him. She had been thinking about what he had to say the whole time before he tripped over the dog and made them lose focus on what they were talking about.

She suddenly turned and nodded her head toward a door.

"Hey, so here's my room. Let's continue our earlier conversation inside. I was paying attention, I promise. The last thing you told me was about you getting some time off at the end of your school day to go and work? That's an interesting practice that I didn't know they did here." She spoke as she opened the door with her key and stepped aside for him to walk in.

He nodded to her and stepped to the side once he entered the room. "Whoa…"

"Oh… yeah… it's pretty lavish, I guess?"

Naruto nodded in surprise. "You could say that… wow… wait, where's the bed?" Naruto stood there, looking utterly confounded, like the walls were suddenly purple or something.

Asami arched a brow and smirked, "Whoa whoa. Getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren't we?"

Naruto turned and asked, "What? No, I don't mean… I mean… the bed. In my room, the bed is right there as soon as you walk in. Did they forget to give you one or something?"

Asami idly wondered what sort of accommodations that Naruto was able to afford to get onto this monster of a luxury ship. She shook her head and said, "No silly. Mine is down the hall past the bathroom."

His eyes widened. "You've got a freaking bathroom!" Naruto excitedly ran past her down the hall to check it out. To his astonishment, there it was, a toilet with an actual bath and a sink to wash your hands. He looked further down and peeked quickly into the bedroom.

Asami chuckled and shook her head, walking down the hallway and entering the bathroom to fix up her makeup. "Naruto, we have about an hour where we can just sit and chat, so do you mind fixing us up some drinks? They are in the living area on a little counter there in fancy bottles. There's also ice in the ice box if you'd like to have something on the rocks."

Naruto said OK and stopped peeking into her room. He walked back down the short hallway and looked at the different drinks there with tons of different drinking glasses. He took a tray from that counter and placed two glasses on it, then picked up one bottle that said 'Traditional Rice Spirit' on the front. He didn't know what it was, but when he opened it and sniffed it, it smelled a little like melon, so he shrugged and poured them both a glass. Then he went over to the lounge area and sat down to wait for her to step out of the restroom.

"So, why don't we finish the story you were telling me."

Naruto perked up and he looked over at Asami as she walked back to the living area.

"Sure, should I just continue where I left off?"

She hummed in agreement and sauntered over to stand beside him. He looked up at her and was perplexed until she nodded her head toward the other seat. "Would you mind scooting over a bit?"

Naruto scooted and eyed her carefully as she sat down besides him.

She smiled, her long hair getting in the way until she flung it back behind her shoulder.

"Um… ok… uh… well, so I told Jiraiya that he was full of it and paid for my meal anyways. I was so certain that there wasn't a free period at the end of the day for kids to go find jobs. So, to my surprise, my teacher Mr. Umino told me that he heard from my pa's friend that I was interested in the work period for school. I told him there wasn't a work period for school and he told me it was a new thing, so I just told him sure and then got my parent's permission and, well, that was that. I spent a lot of time working. And sure enough, I didn't have to fight those guys… well… sort of…"

Asami looked surprised. "Oh, what happened? Oh, thank you!" She smiled as he handed her a drink. She looked down at it and winced when she saw just what he had given her.

Holy shit, Naruto! Did you have to grab the strongest stuff?!

Asami sighed and whispered, 'Bottom's up!' before taking a good sip. She grimaced as the drink went down, but at least he had added some ice so it would water down after a while.

"So, I ran into Sasuke one day… and there was one thing that Jiraiya always told me to do if I ever ran into him when he was away from his group…"

Asami's eyes widened. "So? What did he tell you to do... ?"

Naruto looked her in the eye as he took a sip of the drink. He held it in front of him and swished it around back and forth in his glass.

"Kick his ass."

Naruto downed the rest of the drink in one gulp, not quite realizing just how much alcohol he just slammed into his system.

…

…

…

Alright everyone. So what did you think about this chapter? I have a pretty good idea of where I want to take this. I know this one was sort of uneventful but I hope it helped establish a slightly better connection between the characters.

For those of you looking for something more adventure-y or action-y, it's probably not going to happen much in this story. There's going to be some funny stuff about it and some character drama but I don't think much in the way of fighting or all that stuff. I still want to find a more solid connection for these two which I think will come when they start talking about their trades. Especially if I can figure out a way to get them to work together on something. We'll see.

Also, thank you for your kind words so far. I normally respond to every message, but I would rather just respond here so that I focus more of the free time that I have on actually writing rather than responding to reviews.