Chapter 3
The seventh time Sasuke puts Naruto in the dirt during training all he feels is tired.
“Okay! Pack it in you two, we’re done for the day.”
Sasuke grunts, rising up and ignoring the disgruntled “I almost got you that time!” from the blond at his feet.
“Good job, Sasuke-kun!”
He grunts. His limbs ached, but he’d barely broken a sweat. Kakashi leaves almost immediately, and Sasuke vaguely wonders what he did all day in his spare time, then cringes when he thinks about how he reads porn in broad daylight. It doesn’t take long for him to come to a very unflattering conclusion about what the freak did when he was in private.
Gross.
“Are you busy, Sasuke? Do you want to go on a date?”
Sasuke eyes Sakura, unnerved by how bold she was growing. “I already have plans.”
Her rejection lasts only a second before she brightens. “So, another time then?”
Sasuke shakes his head, just turning on his heel and walking away. Let Naruto catch up to him.
Five minutes away from the training ground Naruto does, raging about how rude he’d been to Sakura and why does Sakura always go for him when he’s such an asshole and doesn’t she know how great Naruto is? It’s so unfair and all his fault-
His steps falter when they reach the academy. They had agreed to go to the academy training ground after team seven’s scheduled meeting, for even more training ostensibly. Naruto had the idea when he’d remembered some horrible defeat Sasuke had given him back in the day and needed to restore his honour, or something. Sasuke hadn’t really cared, just agreed that the grounds would be easy to break into on the weekend when no one was there and, well, training was training.
He’s looking at the building now, dogged exhaustion in his bones. He doesn’t want to train. At all.
“Hey! My swing!”
Naruto is off like a shot, grabbing at the rope swing beneath the massive tree that had sat outside of the academy for generations and most definitely isn’t Naruto’s.
“You don’t own the swing,” Sasuke points out, sort of relieved at being forced away from their plans.
“Actually,” Naruto says slyly, mischievous grin that had Sasuke slowing his steps cautiously, “I do.”
He lifts the seat, showing Sasuke the carving etched underneath the wood.
Property of Uzumaki Naruto
Sasuke is not impressed. “You defaced public property.”
Naruto cackles. “Nope! Just claimed it as my own. Finder’s keepers.”
He flips the seat back down and hops on, grabbing at the ropes and swinging his feet. He suddenly stops, looking up at Sasuke with wide eyes.
“Sasuke!”
Sasuke tenses, his eyes flitting around the grounds looking for the threat when he’s suddenly grabbed…by Naruto. He’s dragged behind the swing.
“Push me!”
Naruto gets back on the swing, craning his head to look at Sasuke, his big eyes begging.
“…You’re kidding.”
Naruto scowls, backing up the swing until he was pressed against Sasuke’s front. “C’mooooon, get over yourself and push.”
Naruto picks his feet up and swings forward, then swings weakly back to Sasuke. Based purely on instinct Sasuke reaches out and touches Naruto’s back, giving a weak push. Naruto barely moves, and looks back again to eye Sasuke like he was stupid.
“Have you never done this before? That was a pretty shitty push.”
Sasuke’s eyes narrow. He grabs Naruto by his hips, heaving him back and then shoves. Naruto goes soaring through the air, but instead of the squawk of indignation he’d wanted Naruto laughs, kicking his legs out with the momentum. He comes back and Sasuke has to take a few hasty steps back so he doesn’t get knocked over, but he reaches up and give Naruto another push.
Naruto laughs again.
He continues to push, because it’s not a big deal and the day is still young and there’s plenty of time to get to training. Besides, getting Naruto in a better mood would mean he’d train for longer so…yeah. It makes sense.
Naruto suddenly stops, planting his feet in the ground to halt his momentum and hops to his feet. Sasuke cringes, for what reason he doesn’t know, but whatever he’s expecting it’s not for Naruto to suddenly grab him and throw him in the swing, holding his hips as he pulls back Sasuke for a swing.
“O-oi what are you-”
He yelps as he soars through the air, and once again instinct takes over and he kicks his feet out, adding power to the swing.
“Hey! You have done this before.”
Sasuke scowls, and on his next ascent jumps, suspends in the air for a moment, before landing gracefully on his feet.
“Idiot. You can’t just grab someone and make them-”
“That’s so cool! I wanna try!”
Naruto gets back on the swing, rearing up and building momentum too quickly. Sasuke steps aside so he won’t get kicked in the head. He jumps when he’s at the apex of the swing…and lands on his face.
“…how did you ever become a ninja…”
Naruto spits out grass, rising to his feet with a scowl. “Shut up! Come push me again. We’re not leaving until I get this right.”
True to his word, they spend the rest of the day there, Sasuke at Naruto’s back and giving him condescending comments the more Naruto face-planted into the dirt. He got back on the swing a few more times to display his ‘technique’ for Naruto to copy, then either graciously chose to push him or just retired to sitting beside the tree, waiting around until finally Naruto landed in a perfect pose, feet together and arms extended.
“Are you happy now?” Sasuke asks, his voice annoyed and most certainly not playful. “We’ve wasted the day with this.”
Naruto gives him a smug look. “You’re just upset I did it better than you.”
Sasuke feels a lot of things about this wasted day, but he isn’t upset.
Which is…weird.