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Chapter 8
I’ve been living in Konoha for a week now.
Half of it was spent moping around in Kakashi’s ridiculously small apartment, bored. The other half was spent wandering outside and running into Naruto randomly. Each time, I’d find ramen in my face and stuck in my hair.
The perfectly fine noodles are starting to look repulsive suddenly. I wonder why.
Naruto would always be outside, being chased around by ANBU (why haven’t they caught him yet? This is very intriguing) covered in paint. Each time I spotted Naruto, he’d try to graffiti over all of the Hokage faces on the Hokage Rock.
Strange, too. Why Naruto would deface the most respected people in the village, I don’t know.
It’s also confusing how Naruto would deface the only person in the village that looked like him. But oh well.
It’s just another day adjusting to the feeling of not being around familiar people. I’m still trying to get used to the places in Konoha. And also the strangers that gape at me when I’m walking with Kakashi.
“Is that Kakashi’s secret son?!”
Oh wow.
Kakashi would always give the gossiping villagers some sort of eye-smile, but stay silent. It didn’t exactly help the growing flame of rumors. I wish Kakashi would just tell everyone that he is NOT my father, even though the Hokage believes by some random miracle that we are biologically related.
I don’t care what the DNA tests say. Kakashi’s not my dad. So just stop.
In fact, I don’t have a dad. Yeah. That’s it. I have no family whatsoever. Not since I left the Land of Waves.
My chest is feeling strangely uncomfortable again.
With one of Kakashi’s fat purses in my hand, I walk into Ichiraku’s because Kakashi can’t even provide an aquedate meal for me.
Here’s what literally happened on the first day together:
I asked Kakashi what was for breakfast. He looked at me for a while before pulling out a bunch of protein bars. While scouring around, I found that there was no other semblance of food in the apartment.
Maybe protein bars are acceptable for jonin to eat on a daily basis, but I’m a growing boy. I think.
Naruto plops down next to me, and I find myself confused yet again. We don’t get along whatsoever, with him throwing bowls of his precious ramen at me (I saw Naruto gorge down ten bowls at once, and that’s not an exaggeration).
And Naruto probably already knows when I go to Ichiraku’s. Usually, I’m only there for a few minutes to buy a small bowl of ramen.
Ichiraku sets down two bowls of steaming-hot ramen. It looks strangely appetizing for some reason. I must be hungrier than I thought.
I glance over at Naruto’s plate, which is filled with narutos.
Well, what do you know!
There’s a bunch of red squiggles in Naruto’s ramen signaling their presence.
A red swirl.
Red circles…
I feel as if I’m staring into a pool of blood. I feel like I’m drowning in the stench of iron.
There’s so much. My hands and clothes are covered in red.
There’s splitting pain in my back as black marks creep up my arm and down my legs.
Gray hair obscures my vision as I stare at two bodies lying on top of each other.
I can’t scream, my voice can’t come out.
My vision blurs in and out, the pain in my chest slowly increasing.
There’s a dull impact to my head, pushing me backwards until—
“OW!” I crash onto the ground, knocked off the stool I was sitting on a second before.
Pain blossoms up my spine, but my vision’s clear now. I can clearly see Naruto standing up on the counter, holding a clenched fist up.
“Your face was about to fall in your ramen, dummy!”
“That doesn’t mean you had to knock me over!” I yell.
“I tried I other ways! You kept on sitting there like a zombie!”
“Quiet down, boys. Can’t have you two being rowdy in the restaurant!” Ichiraku smoothly steps in and claps his hands on both of our shoulders. We both look down at the ground apologetically. Ichiraku has some sort of mystical effect on the both of us. Heck, he can calm almost any villager in Konoha.
It’s like Ichiraku has some sort of secret ‘Talk no jutsu’ thing going on.
---
After Naruto and I walk out of the ramen place together without hitting each other, we run into the duck boy.
Yes, I still don’t know his name. All of the civilians do, however, since they keep on acting respectfully towards duck boy. Quite the opposite of what happens when they look at Naruto.
Suddenly, it seems so unfair. Duck boy doesn’t seem to have an ounce of politeness or nice in him. Naruto only pulls pranks and defaces the Hokage monument. Besides, Naruto isn’t all that bad. When he’s not trying to squabble with me, that is…
Naruto immediately flips off duck boy, and I cringe. What kid does this?
I’m even more surprised when duck boy raises his middle finger slightly in retaliation. What’s wrong with you two?
“Look, is there some sort of intense rivalry between you two?” I blurt out.
“Tch, this annoying dobe won’t leave me alone!” The duck boy turns around and walks away.
I look at Naruto, who’s fuming. “HEY! STOP CALLING ME DOBE, TEME!”
Sasuke finally disappears from sight, and Naruto crosses his arms. “* Sasuke. What in the world happened to him?”
I’m surprised by Naruto’s words. “What do you mean, ‘what happened to him’?”
“I mean Sasuke-teme used to not have a * up his *.” Naruto grins when I try to keep a laughing expression off of my face.
“Pricks will be pricks.” I say simply after I calm down somewhat. “There’s no helping it. They just won’t change…”
“Yeah. Like you.” Naruto interrupts. He grins *ly as I try to smack him in the face, but end up with paint in my hair.
Aaaaaand Naruto’s gone. Great.
I groan as I rush over to the Hokage Monument.