.
Ahem:
NarutoanditscastdoesnotbelongtomeyetbutitwillonceIruletheworld,whichshouldhappenrightabout.................
..................now.
Gather 'round friends, it's high time I told ye what happened in ye olde last chapter:
"Teach me how to do that!" He shouted, startling himself.
"What, how to fish? It's pretty easy, all you need is you teeth, really-"
"No, no! Teach me how to use chakra! Sasuke interrupted before Naruto could go on.
Huh?
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Naruto frowned, wrinkling his nose. Sasuke just stared in rapt attention.
"Teach you how to do what-a-what?" He tilted his head in confusion. Sasuke restrained himself from banging his head against Naruto's in frustration. Really, how dense could the blonde be? He settled on slapping his own forehead instead. Injuring his brain wouldn't help him improve, as far as he knew. "I want you to teach me how to climb stuff without using my hands." Sasuke gestured just to further make his point clear.
Naruto looked up to the tree branch he had jumped off, then to the water he had climbed out of.
"But you don't want me to teach you how to fish?"
"NO."
"Are you sure? It's a lot more fun, and useful. You never know when you're gonna want fresh fish-"
"Naruto, I can eat fish whenever I want. There's tons of it frozen in my freezer at home and even more in stores."
"WHAT?! REALLY!?!" Naruto looked amazed at the very idea. This only served to irk Sasuke further. "Wait, but how is that even possible...?" The boy mused.
"Look, are you gonna teach me or not?"
"Okay, geez." Naruto threw his hands up in surrender. Walking to the tree, he put one foot on the bark, then the other, and stopped. "Well, follow me." He called, waving at Sasuke to hurry up.
"B-but HOW?"
"I dunno." Naruto shrugged. "Father only taught me by showing me. He's not much for explaining."
"Well, he had to have said something!"
The blonde stood horizontally, thinking back. "Well... uh..."
"...uh..."
"...um..." He sat in place, deep in thought. Sasuke felt like he was going to herniate a disc from the stress of annoyance, whatever that meant. But come hell or high water, he would not let this opportunity pass, even if his teacher was a blonde nimrod.
"If you can't remember what he said, tell me how you do it." He suggested.
"Oh!" Naruto snapped his fingers in sudden revelation. "Why didn't you say that sooner."
If Sasuke was a lesser man, he would have cried, broken down and strangled the other,
then cried some more, preferably to his mama.
"Okay. Basically all you need to do is think of all your energy going to you hands, feet,
whatever. Now follow me." Dubious, Sasuke closed his eyes and did as he was told... only to wake up five minutes later with a sore head and a worried Naruto looking down upon him.
"Ugh-"
"Are you okay? You walked a little bit on the tree so I thought you'd be okay, but then you totally fell on your head-"
Massaging the tingly spot on the back of his head, the young Uchiha suddenly looked surprised.
"Wait- You mean, I actually climbed up the tree? How far up did I get?"
Naruto gaped for a minute, then looked at the tree, as if trying to estimate how far Sasuke went. "I dunno, maybe a couple feet off the ground. Not really that high, otherwise you'd probably be hurt worse than that."
Grimacing, Sasuke gingerly stood, concentrating his chakra back to his feet. "Is there any trick to this?" He asked, turning to Naruto.
"Uh-" Upon seeing the murderous look on Sasuke's face, Naruto hastened to answer. "All I can say is concentrate, and don't let anything distract you, I guess."
Heeding Naruto's advice, Sasuke cleared his mind and charged up the tree.
And promptly fell back down.
So he tried again...
Only to have the same disastrous results.
Again and again and again and...
Boomf. Pow. Thud. Bamf.
Winded, he decided the best plan of action would be to take a break. But he would not give up, his pride as an Uchiha goaded him on. So Sasuke stayed in the last position he had landed on, staring a the cheerful sky and gasping for breath. Naruto, quiet for once, sat beside him.
"Sasuke, why-"
"Why what?" Sasuke snapped, unable to help himself out of irritation of his own failings.
Naruto flinched, his cheeks reddening.
"Why- why do you try so hard?"
The Uchiha couldn't help but think over this. Sure, the whole reason he had gotten into the ninja business was so he could prove himself worthy of the Uchiha family name. But at some point it had become more of a way to prove himself as a strong individual, strong enough to escape Itachi's long shadow.
"I guess I want to be as great as my brother, maybe even greater."
Naruto gave him a funny look, an odd gleam in his eyes.
"But then what? After you get stronger than him, what are you going to do?"
Now this was something new. Never once in his life had Sasuke thought about what would happen afterwards. Such new ideas were strange and foreign.
"I don't know..." A bright idea sparked in his head. "Hey, maybe I'll become Hokage!" He laughed.
Naruto just looked blankly at him.
"You do know what a Hokage is, don't you?"
"No idea!" Naruto admitted with a cheerful grin.
Sasuke didn't think twice about this, seeing as Naruto never wore clothes until they had met. He figured naked people were probably less educated than others. He pointed in the direction of the village, towards the mountains.
"A Hokage is the village leader. He protects us and is loyal only to us, just as we are loyal to him." Sasuke wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but he had heard stories about the previous Hokages and their sacrifices, and admired them greatly.
At the end of his short speech, Naruto immediately perked up, his eyes wide in amazement.
"Wow! That's almost exactly like what I'm going to be when I grow up!"
"Oh yeah? And what's that, smarty-pants?"
"A great protector!" Naruto exclaimed.
"But you're not enrolled in the Ninja Academy." Sasuke frowned.
"Well duh." Naruto rolled his eyes.
"You can't be the village leader without graduating from the academy." Naruto was good, but he wasn't THAT good.
"I never said I wanted to be a Hokage." Naruto huffed.
"But how could you be a great protector without being Hokage?" Sasuke was genuinely interested.
"Easy." Naruto smiled, wide and toothsome. "I'm in training to become a forest spirit! Then I'll protect all the land, from the plants and the trees to the animals and the people and even YOU, Sasuke!" He laughed, pride lacing his every word.
If this was any other situation, Sasuke would have scoffed, but the way Naruto looked-
the way he had said it- He had known Naruto for little more than a day, but he already knew that Naruto meant every word that he spoke, and something about the way Naruto looked, with his head braced toward the sky and something powerful barely hidden behind his smile, told him to believe this strange, brash boy.
So he believed him.
"A forest spirit, huh?" Sasuke murmured after a while. "Are you any good at it?"
"I dunno. I haven't begun training yet." Naruto grinned, his eyes shrinking into that weird little squint.
"Then how do you know you'll be a great one?"
"I'm not sure. Actually, when I went home last night and told father about you, he announced that I'm going to start training soon."
"Is that so?"
"YEAH!" The blonde nodded vigorously, then stopped. "Everyone at home was really excited, because they've all been waiting for him to teach me, but I've been wondering why he decided so suddenly. Usually he thinks about this stuff for a long time, and he's no good at keeping secrets..."
"Maybe he wanted to surprise you." Sasuke suggested, shrugging.
"Maybe.." Naruto agreed, not looking convinced. "Anyways, let's get back to climbing! As soon as you reach that branch I was on before, I want you to jump off and walk on the water back onto land!"
"WHAT?! That's too hard!"
"That's why it's a challenge, duh, to get stronger!"
"Argh! You're a slave driver!"
"I don't know what that means, but just for that you have to do it five more times once you get it right!"
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That night Uchiha Sasuke came home sopping wet and covered in scrapes. His mother was naturally concerned, but silenced when a smiling Sasuke plopped a fresh fish on her counter.
Neither did she say anything as he exited the room to bathe and she prepared his catch for dinner. She would have been unusually silent through the meal as well, had she not come to a singular conclusion:
It must be a male Uchiha thing.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Sigh— My growing season is nearing its end. My leaves are starting to droop and -yyaawwwwwnnn- I'm slowing down. Since no one has luaus this time of year, I'm not getting as much exercise as usual. Maybe once Christmas and Thanksgiving come around I'll work up a sweat running from the cannery.