Chapter 1: At the Naruto Bridge
I switch the lamp on and a soft light shine over my small bedroom. I slowly sit on my bed and place down the big scrapbook that I hold in one hand. I then empty the contents of the small box that I hold in my other hand. Several pictures and various odds and ends tumble out of it. I purse my lips as I pick up a random picture and hold it against the light.
The soft glow illuminates three children crowding in the foreground with one adult in the background. All of them sport the insignia of the Hidden Leaf ninja.
The blond boy in the middle is showing a million-watt smile, both hands sporting the universal peace sign. The girl with the pink hair to his right is playfully sticking her tongue out to the camera. The boy with the dark hair at the far left of the frame is looking away from the lens, a blush prominently displayed on his cheeks. The reason for his embarrassment is obviously the forehead protector that all three have worn askew right over their left eyes. The style is clearly copied from the way the adult standing behind them has arranged his own forehead protector. What can be seen of the man shows that he is a full-fledged shinobi, probably the teacher of the younger ninjas. Besides his unusual method of wearing their village's insignia, he is also holding up an orange book that looks like a pornographic novel. His cheeks are flushed but his one visible eye shows immense surprise at what the children in front are doing…
It had been almost two weeks since the threat to Tazuna's little village had been averted. That meant two weeks of recuperating for the team from the Hidden Leaf village. And two weeks of sheer frustration for Sakura.
"Hey Inari pass me the soy sauce!" yelled Naruto as he paused from his scarfing.
"Sasuke's right in front of it, why don't you ask him?" grumbled Inari.
Blue eyes met black. Heavy, electric silence reigned around the table. Everyone stopped eating—well except for Kakashi who kept on mysteriously shoveling food into his mouth at a speed that defied eye speed—no one could actually see him pushing down the cloth covering half of his face and putting food into his mouth.
Both boys harrumphed and looked away. The tension dissipated. Everyone went back to eating—except for Sakura.
"Naruto…" she growled warningly.
The two had been ignoring each other ever since the bloodbath at the bridge. She didn't know what had happened to make them so uncomfortable with each other. She had tried to ask first Sasuke then Naruto but both boys had somehow decided to keep mum about the issue that plagued them. When she had approached Kakashi, their teacher had just smiled at her and pulled out his worn copy of Come Come Paradise.
Sakura frowned. She knew that whatever it was must have been big to make even Konoha's number one loudmouth mute.
"But Sakura-chan I just wanted some soy sauce," Naruto whined, interrupting her reverie.
"Then get it yourself!" Sakura snapped.
All the secrecy was making her temper towards Naruto's antics even more volatile.
Sasuke took that moment to flick his chopsticks to get a piece of fish. His movement caused the dish containing the condiment to fly in the air straight for Naruto's face. The blond boy yelped and barely managed to catch it before it spilled all its contents on him. He glowered at Sasuke but the dark-haired boy ignored him.
Naruto grumbled under his breath. A maniacal gleam slowly appeared in his eyes. Satisfied of the amount of soy sauce on his fish, he flung the dish straight back at Sasuke's face. The other boy looked like he didn't even notice. At the last minute his hand shot up and his finger snapped the dish down, all without looking up from his food.
"Wow!" Inari shouted, clapping his hands.
"Show off!" Naruto sulked before gobbling down the last of his meal.
Sasuke's lips quirked up slightly as he too finished his food.
"I'm going to train," the two announced simultaneously.
They glared at each other.
"Have fun!" Kakashi said, waving his hand distractedly at them. "Just come back around noon for your shift."
The two continued to glare at each other as they marched out of the house. They paused at the door, then turned their backs at each other and walked in separate directions. Sakura just sighed as she watched them leave.
"C'mon Sakura, we have to leave for our shift," Kakashi said, standing up.
Sakura nodded and stood up as well after mumbling a thanks for the food. She and Kakashi were partners in the morning shift of standing guard while the workers finished the bridge. Although there was already no threat and technically they should still be resting, they still felt it their duty to be at the site just in case. It was very light duty anyway. Besides, the boys had begun training again almost as soon as they could stand up.
After a boring half-day of watching nothing, Sakura was almost grateful to see Naruto as he bounced towards the bridge. Sasuke ambled in not long after.
"I've just gotten a super good news," Tazuna exclaimed in greeting. "The bridge will be finished tomorrow!"
There was a loud cheer, noticeably from Naruto.
"Because of that," Tazuna continued, "some of the workers will go off early to do some fishing for the celebrations tomorrow."
"Ooh! I wanna help there! Can I Teacher Kakashi? Can I? Can I?" Naruto shouted excitedly, bouncing with sheer exuberance.
Kakashi laughed and nodded.
"All right!"
"Sakura stay here," Kakashi said.
Sakura groaned at the thought of another four hours of watch duty.
"Sasuke, you stay with her."
Sakura perked up at this. Sasuke looked up in surprise but one glance at the blond and he nodded.
"Naruto and I will help the villagers fish."
"Yay! I'll catch a lot of fish! Fish! Fish!"
Naruto continued his chant all the way to the beach and way into the night. With their help, the villagers managed to catch quite a lot of seafood that day.
The next day, Naruto was up and buzzing early. Although he would never tell the others, he was really excited about participating in a village celebration since he had never been to one his entire life.
Powered by the knowledge that their life-long dream would be completed, the workers made good time and by noon the bridge touched the main land on the other side.
Soon the party was underway. A photographer from the other village was on the bridge snapping off pictures of the workers and various villagers. Naruto's eyes sparkled mischievously as he saw the man.
"Hey old man how about taking a picture of the hero of the Wave country!" he shouted striking a pose he thought was heroic on the thin rail of the bridge.
"Stupid why would anyone want to take your picture?" Sasuke muttered, standing near the grinning blond.
Naruto grimaced at him.
"Yeah well someone who hates dark-faced party poopers like you!" he retaliated.
"At least I'm not a deluded person who thinks he's a hero when he's just a dead-last."
"Sasuke you bastard!"
Naruto made a flying jump that Sasuke easily evaded. The two began their routine of kicking and taunting. The villagers of both countries looked on bemusedly.
"Sasuke! Naruto! Stop it!" Sakura yelled, trying but failing to stop the two who were starting to work up a good sweat.
"Hey, hey c'mon, this is a celebration!" Tazuna said, managing to stand between the two. "Mr. Photographer why don't you take a picture of the whole group that saved us all!"
"Yeah, listen to Mr. Tazuna. At the rate you're both going, you'll be ruining the bridge when they just finished building it," Kakashi said, appearing right behind them with his face glued to his book.
Naruto's mood swung instantly.
"Yay! Picture!" he yelled practically taking up the whole view of the photographer.
"Naruto don't hug the picture!" Sakura admonished.
Naruto backed up a bit.
"We should do a cool pose!" Naruto suggested. "How about this?"
He made a scary samurai-esque face. Sakura just laughed at him.
"Naruto no one would take you seriously with a face like that."
"Dead-last," Sasuke muttered.
Naruto was about to growl back an answer when Kakashi interrupted their impending fight.
"Why don't you just go do your own poses and get this over with," he suggested as he turned over a page.
His three students looked at him. Naruto's lips slowly stretched into a wide grin.
"I think I know a good cool pose," he said.
The three looked at him as he flipped his forehead protector over his left eye. Sakura muffled a squeal as she caught on to his idea. She too rearranged her protector over an eye. The two looked at Sasuke whose eyes had widened.
"No," the dark-haired boy shook his head. "Nothing doing. No!"
"But Sasuke…" Sakura wheedled.
"No!" Sasuke stubbornly refused, a hint of pink touching his cheeks. "I'm not doing anything stupid."
"It's not stupid you bastard!" Naruto yelled, fuming. "Hmp! Let him stay that way Sakura. He'll just be plain boring Sasuke while we'll be cool copy-ninja Naruto and copy-kunoichi Sakura! Ha! And everyone will know how uncool and stupid Sasuke Uchiha really is!"
"Hey, do you guys still want your picture taken?" the photographer shouted from behind his camera. "I need to take other pictures too."
"We're ready old man! Scaredy-cat Sasuke was just slowing us!"
"I am not scared!"
"You are too! Scared and uncool!"
"You little—!" Sasuke pulled his protector over his left eye, his blush blossoming over his cheeks. "There! Just to show you I'm not scared."
He looked over at the gawking photographer.
"Just take the picture already old man!"
The man bent over, the flash flared briefly and the pose was forever immortalized. The photographer then moved on leaving behind a guffawing Naruto, a deep red Sasuke, a melting fangirl Sakura, and a very amused Kakashi.
Later that night everyone returned to a much quieter celebration near Tazuna's house. A bonfire was created and some food was roasted over the fire.
"We need to name this bridge," one villager suddenly announced.
The others nodded and suggestions started pouring out.
"Wave Bridge."
"How about Hope Bridge since it carries our hope for the future."
"How about Shinobi bridge because of all those battles that were done on it."
Tazuna-san chuckled and loudly interjected, "I have a super perfect name for this bridge!"
"Oh? What is it?"
"How about The Great Naruto Bridge?"
People stared at him then at the blond genin who was too busy scarfing down a large fish to notice the conversation. His fellow Leaf members, however, were staring at the Wave villagers as if they were crazy.
"Y'know, that's a good name," one man declared, grinning at the blond who had been elbowed in the stomach by Sakura so that he would pay attention.
Naruto looked around at the all the people looking at him. He frowned.
"You sure about that name?" Kakashi asked.
Naruto glanced at his teacher then back at the people. Tazuna chuckled again.
"The name is a sign of hope that this bridge will never crumble and will one day become a super famous bridge whose name is known throughout the world…"
Kakashi and Sakura relaxed then smiled. Sasuke just shrugged and continued eating. Naruto, still clueless about what he had missed, followed Sasuke's example and resumed wolfing down his meal. It didn't look like he was in trouble. The villagers hadn't gazed at him with cold eyes unlike the people from his hometown so he just assumed that whatever they had been discussing wasn't any of his business. Maybe he would ask Kakashi or Sakura about it tomorrow when they go home…
A small chuckle escapes my mouth.
That was the first time that I sawSasuke blush and show a vivid emotion on his face other than anger or ridicule. But I guess this also shows just how persuasive Naruto can be.
I open the scrapbook and carefully glue the picture on it. Underneath it I also glue in a paper. I look around for a pen and find one in my drawer. Slowly I write:
Wave Country, Summer, First Year as Genins.
Author's Rant Corner (ARC): First Naruto fic. Neways, please review.