Gerimis

Ino’s apartment

They woke up the next day a little bit sore physically but almost unaffected by yesterday's event. For Sai, Ino and Sasuke that kind of action was easily dealt with, physically and mentally. However, Ino was not sure if Naruko was able to survive such things. She wondered whether she should seek counselling for Naruko to ease the girl's psyche. Ino frowned at the drooling Naruko who was rolling in her yellow sunflower printed comforter like a burrito.

Last night Ino assigned Sai and Sasuke to sleep either in the guest bedroom or the living room's couch. Ino promised to be a 'good girl' to Sai the next time they have private time, and dragged Naruko to sleep with her intending to monitor the girl overnight.

"Mmmm… Ramen…mmmm."

Ino smiled at the drooly girl. Suddenly somehow she knew Naruko would overcome yesterday's trauma much more quicker than she anticipated. Normal people wouldn't be able to sleep. But this girl, she somehow slept and even dreamt of Ramen. Ino nudged the side of Naruko with her knee.

"Hey, wake up sleepy head. It's time to prepare breakfast for your heroes of last night."

Ino promptly got up to wash her face. At the same time, Naruko rolled herself to Ino's side of the bed. Two minutes later she rolled further but with no Ino to act as a barrier, she rolled until she met the carpeted floor. The falling sensation woke her and she somehow knocked her head into the side of the metal bed frame. The new pain did not hurt much and Naruko realised in her half awake state that she had healed almost completely from yesterday.

Ino who had finished brushing her teeth, walked past the fallen blonde and Ino laughed at the poor girl. She made her way out to check on her fiance and guest.

Sasuke was sitting on the floor meditating when Ino peeked into the parted guest room door. Next, she tiptoed into the living room and saw Sai still in his pyjamas, watching some old movies he found in Ino's collection. Ino kissed the top of his head and noticed something smelling nice. Following the smell, Ino peered into the kitchen and saw a modest breakfast spread.

"Wow, is this all you're doing Raven?" she hollered to the meditating boy in the guest room, who having heard her opened one eye and smiled proudly. Ino knew Sai wasn't much of a cook and Naruko was out with the sleep jutsu she planted on the girl, so it was definitely Sasuke.

The breakfast courtesy of Chef Sasuke was devoured instantly - pancakes with blueberries plus syrup on top and banana fritters, with a pot of coffee and a cup of milk for Naruko. Sai, Ino and Naruko chatted while Sasuke sat alone at the sofa to watch the movie Sai was watching earlier.

Ino told Naruko about the honest but insensitive things which Sai had said to her before they started dating. Naruko laughed wholeheartedly, it has been awhile since she was involved in a funny conversation with friends, or new friends. Though she was enjoying herself she couldn't help checking out the dark haired boy a few metres away from them.

His damp hair on the back was starting to stick out in impossible angles as they dried. Naruko could see his cheeks puffed from smiles maybe, and she thought she could hear him laugh. But his actions were all in a very controlled manner. Naruko wondered about Sasuke, so attractive but almost untouchable, and since Ino did not care to include Sasuke in their socializing, she decided to abandon any idea of talking further with him.

At least I won't be talking to him for now. it is not everyday that she met a boy around her age who fought some burly guys. Remembering her event last night, she shuddered but recollected her thoughts and pushed the event away before listening back to Ino.

After breakfast, I checked Naruko's injuries in the bedroom as Sai had joined Sasuke at the tv. Naruko had very faint bruises by now and the colour almost invisible as Naruko's dark skin and red undertones helped hide the redness of it. Naruko marvelled at the way the injuries healed quickly as she used to spend weeks sporting bruises before they fade.

She used to get bruised up every other week before living with Iruka, either from sports or rolling in the garden with her foster siblings and her favourite Taijutsu practitioner neighbour Rock Lee. Iruka was too white collared to get physical with her, until the kiss of course.

"Iruka.." she somehow mouthed his name and Ino caught it.

With Ino's support, Naruko contacted Iruka and the man was tense when hearing the news and gritted his teeth while telling off Ino for not informing him yesterday. But of course he had known about the news from Kakashi who was still away somewhere. Iruka finally hung up as he had a weekend class and after making sure Ino would be around to guard Naruko.

At exactly 10.00 am, Ino dragged Naruko out to the laundromat with two baskets of laundry. After they were definitely gone, Sai and Sasuke sat in the living room, the sunlight peeped in between the blinders which was drawn shut. Sai pulled out his palm sized communicator and said his greetings to Gai Lee a senior officer of chunin.

The officer started with a speech of how young and youthful they look and on with the recent news. After five minutes of updating he went down to business.

"As you recalled Neji and Tenten came back from Bali, Indonesia with the seven tails Jinchuuriki two days ago." Gai looked down at his file, his half moon reading glasses threatening to fall lower but he pushed it back up to its original position and looked back at the young men from the screen. "Her name is Fuu Indra, a very friendly girl which is the most recent participant of the Bijuu program. Hopefully she will bring forth a great satisfaction to our leader's newest project."

A file was pushed in front of Gai Lee and he took a look at it. He nodded to the offscreen person pushing the file and continued.

"Danzo pushed for chunin, as a branch of ROOT to accelerate the acquisition of the subject Naruko Uzumaki, within a week. They intend to initiate her and Fuu Indra at the same time which is on the first of the fifth month. This is where you come in. Sasuke…"

Gai turned his eyes towards Sasuke and the boy moved three millimeters forward towards the screen at the mention of his name.

"Danzo wants you to deliver the message to the youthful prospective Jinchuuriki within a week."

"Yes Sir."

"Sai, you are to bring her to ROOT before the 15th of this month. She must not be harmed in any way. As for Ino, as she is already involved, permission had been granted to involve her further."

Sai nodded and offered his gratitude "Thank you sir."

"The seven tails jinchuuriki and the to be nine tails jinchuriki are naturally lovable sunshines, together they will bring forth a springtime of youth in the era of young bloom and ….."

Then someone offscreen gave a loud ahem and Gai Lee stopped. He gave the offscreen person side eyes and continued looking back at the screen. Gai Lee flashed his million dollar smile and posed a thumbs up.

"I have other team to brief. So Good Luck to the both of you," he finished and the screen went blank.

Sai and Sasuke nodded absently at the blank screen. Sai shut down his communicator and slipped it into his bag. Without as much as glancing at Sasuke he asked.

"So what's your modus operandi? I suggest you befriend her like a normal person would, before telling her. It wouldn't be nice to straight using genjutsu on her."

"I only have seven days and using genjutsu would be easier, but Gai said no harm is to be done on her. So my plan is to befriend her…" Sasuke paused. It was not his business to be inquisitive when it comes to Danzo as he is only a junior CHUNIN. But a question is a question and he had wondered since last night's event and so he ploughed ahead with his question.

"I was told that her chakra is weaker than Fuu of Bali, Gaara Sabaku and Killer Bee. So why her as a candidate? She couldn't even protect herself against a normal man last night."

Sai turned at Sasuke. "Beats me. I just want this to mission to be accomplished. Just do it ok, the rest is up to Danzo. Maybe you can ask Gai later about the weak one."

"Hnn." He thought he mission was illogical, persuading a girl to join an unknown organisation, she would probably rather skip shopping for a year than joining them, Shikamaru would say that this was troublesome. But for Sasuke anything which does not involve weapon and espionage is illogical.

"I'm heading out. When lunch is ready, call me. I hadn't tasted Ino's onigiri in a while. She makes the best so far."

Sai lifted a two finger salute to Sasuke, as the younger boy headed to the door. "I'll pass the praises to her later, about the onigiri."

Sasuke walked away thinking, Maybe I should have checked out the movie "How To Win A Date With A Girl In 10 Days" instead of watching the documentary on Berlin Wall the other day, he thought. But in this case, he only had 7 days from tomorrow. He knew movies were just for entertainment but anything would help him give a clue or at least some idea of how to talk to a normal girl.

Sasuke recalled his experiences with talking to girls, he listed the girls in the CHUNIN squad. He excluded the females he had to talk to during missions, those girls did not matter and were mostly forgettable. His comrades in CHUNIN were an entirely different specimen from the population of Earth's girls he thought. He did not need to talk to them all the time, did not need to befriend them as they work together automatically like bees in a hive, except for Sakura, she had a special position in his life being his constant teammate since he was 12.

Eh, had i gone soft. What's with this thought about Sakura being different from the others. Madam Mikoto and Officer Fugaku are special too, but he knew the elder woman who had birthed him was essentially his mother figure though she had merely been his egg donor.

Shaking his head to banish these confusing thought, the sixteen year old boy plopped down on the floor and started breathing to meditate. I have to reprogram my thoughts and start thinking about this mission. He cleared his mind and began unknotting his tangled chakra.

"Naru, I noticed you checking out Sasuke yesterday, right?"

Naruko blushed when being confronted by Ino's question. Ino noticing the blush, pursed her lips and went on.

"He's a person that strangers would call stoic but if you really want to befriend him you should be yourself as he does not like pretentious people." Ino instantly remembered his Sharingan and continued, "in fact he is among those people who could look straight into your mind."

Naruko cleared her throat, "You mean that stuck up, duck butt haired boy, he had not spoken a word to me at all. Why would I want to befriend him?" She tried to sound offended by Ino's suggestion when in fact she had been intrigued by the boy.

Ino laughed. "Heck, I notice him checking you out too." She looked away at the whirling clothes in the washing machine and thought, though Sasuke only checked you out while you checked him out thrice. But to my judgement he is intrigued as he never actually checked anyone before.

"He's like Sai's shadow and they are often together." Ino added in her mind , the same dark hair, light coloured skin but Sai's much more handsome of course though Sasuke could beat him in some other universe maybe. She grinned at her childish thoughts and bit her lips to hide a grin, while glancing at Naruko. "It could do you some good to have more same aged friend."

Ino's words hit Naruko and she realized she always had friends, precious few friends who were either younger or older. Her most close in age, close in proximity and always in her line of sight was her neighbour back in Iwa, fuzzy brows or his real name Rock Lee. She realized she had not visited them at all since she moved to Konoha six months ago, maybe she would do it the next free weekend she had. She admitted that she even missed doing the 80 laps run around the neighbourhood and the 18 ramen bowl challenged which caused severe stomach ache for them both. Hers usually caused by the laps and his usually by the ramens.

She also had the friends who are like family including old lady Chiyo, Anko, Iruka and the brats who come and go at Chiyo's house, like Konohamaru. Konohamaru was unrealistically attached to Naruko although he was only there for less than a year. After the six year old boy's single mother died he was sent to Chiyo for temporary placement before the court could place him with suitable relatives. Unfortunately his maternal side of the family was having financial problems and asked that he be placed there for awhile before his paternal grandfather came and soon they were having DNA tests. After the test came out positive and no other potential guardian came forward, the grandfather won custody and away Konohamaru went to Konoha.

Naruko just realized that she was indeed in the same city as Konohamaru and made a mental reminder to visit him or maybe write a letter to him someday.

"Pass me the detergent," Ino interrupted Naruko's train of memories from the past.

The younger girl stood up and passed the detergent packet which she had been holding all along, to Ino who was loading her other basket of dirty laundry into a recently vacated washing machine.

They went on to watch the machine came back to operation, sloshing the clothes in water and detergent. Ino continued to plan on what her bridesmaids will wear and that the bridegroom will look good in various shades of time colours and, and Naruko about to be or not to befriend Sasuke.

When Ino and Naruko finally returned to Ino's apartment, Sai was dozing on the living room's floor while Sasuke was nowhere in sight. They placed the baskets of clean clothes aside before I knelt down to kiss her fiance. She had been acting extra lovey lovey since he proposed to him months ago.

Sai had welcomed it, in fact he was craving for affectionate touches eternally after being trained to be emotionally void for 9 years, ever since he was six. Then he entered the emancipation program at 15 and meeting Ino and the girls who taught him so much more about human communication and the art behind it. When he met Sasuke, he quickly befriended the younger boy, noticing the boy being too stoic at 10 and also because of their love for art. Slowly he educated the boy to be more outwardly emotional, and he was greatly failing at that.

When he hit 21 and was offered to be free from the shackles of CHUNIN, he had quickly chosen joining CHUNIN for another decade, knowing that with his newfound perspective in life he would be better at helping his fellow comrades. He had also come to realize that he was too attached to this soldier lifestyle and also because Ino gave him her full support. They did not need to consult each other whether to be CHUNIN or not after 21, because you can take them out of CHUNIN but the soldier self will forever be in them. Ino knew Sai was better of living in the shadows of the civilian a rather than in it. They had set up a design company with Ino as the COO, while Sai and Sasuke used their earnings from CHUNIN to fund the year old company.

Sai woke up when soft lips pressed his lips, he smiled at his fiancee. He sat up, pulled her into a quick kiss, looked at Naruko and grabbed his comforter before going into Ino's bedroom. Ino patted Naruko's shoulder and followed her fiance into her bedroom before shutting the door down.

Being left alone didn't bother Naruko, Ino promised to send her home in half an hour and she was already full of ramen, three bowls of them - chicken, cuttlefish and miso ramen. She switched on the tv and watched the noon news sports section, an insert of 22 men running after a black and white ball on a field.

Half an hour later Sasuke came out from the guest bedroom and leaned against the wall looking at her. Naruko could feel the burning look on her shoulder for about two minutes before she looked at his way and asked.

"What?"

He asked, face expressionless. "Ready to go home yet?"

"Are you sending me home?"

"We are taking the bus." He looked away and went to the door. Just then Ino came out and called.

"Hey, take my car. I'll get it back tomorrow after work."

Sasuke sighed and grabbed the keys off Ino's hands and opened the door and was out the apartment.

"The car's at the back. Baby blue and it's KY 342 C, remember that," she called to Naruko who was still sitting at the couch. "Be quick or he'll leave you."

Naruko leapt and reflexively threw the remote at Ino before darting out, leaving the front door open.

Naruko spotted Sasuke leaning against the blue car as he warmed the engine. Ino had cute taste in car, it was a classic Mini Cooper with tan leather seats. When Sasuke saw her, he walked to the passenger's side and opened the door for her.

Naruko stood trying to process this special treatment.

"Get in quick," he glared at her.

She jumped in and sat looking at him moving into the driver's side and get in. He wore his safety belt and brought down the hand brake before shifting the gears into drive. He started driving and was about three metres moving when he slammed the foot brake and glared at the road.

"Wear your seatbelts, after last night do you want to repeat having your head knocked again?"

Naruko scrambled for the seat belt and glared at the boy. He turned to his right to check the traffic and smirked satisfactorily, but the smirk vanished when he turned to his front where Naruko could see him. The girl was staring at him in clear anger.

Her apartment was 15 minutes away, but the drive like longer. Naruko hadn't felt such anger in such a long time, she tried to counter her anger with breathing deeply and held her anger in.

Naruko sighed in relief as her low cost apartment block came into view. Sasuke parked his car near the stairs. They sat in silence when he spoke.

"Your name is Naruko right? Naruko Uzumaki?"

She nodded and added a spoken forced reply to confirm his question.

"Great. Invite me to your house, I need to tell you something important."

Sasuke sat on the sofa bed, looking at the red and orange accents of the sparse apartment. It looked somehow cute for a blonde girl.

Cute? When had I ever had that in my vocabulary? Just be friends, deliver the message and send Sai in.

As he was arranging his thoughts Naruko entered the living room and handed him a sugarless chrysanthemum drink pack.

"This was Iruka's but he won't mind since he is away... Ino said you don't like sweet drinks."

Basic courtesy he sure had intact although this girl seemed to rile him up in every aspect.

"Thank you." He placed the can of drink aside.

She stood back and leaned against a wall, staring at him.

"My name is Sasuke, Sasuke Uchiha." He rarely needed to use his surname, only when he wants something from someone, like friendship. Usually it's Sasuke, Raven as the CHUNIN called him or his assigned code number.

"What was it that you wanted to tell me?" Naruko asked.

"I want to befriend you. After three days you will know the reason why."

Naruko was too used to be affronted with vague requests of things, often time people even ordered her around without her consent. Just because she was a minor and became a ward of Iwa after she was two and no one came to adopt her, she was whisked everywhere until she landed in Anko's radar and placed at Chiyo's foster home.

"I knew from Ino that you are wary of strangers. How about, if you allow me to be your friend, I will do anything logical for you. Is that good enough reason for you to get to know me?" Sasuke asked. He was not smiling but his voice sounded earnest this time. He locked his eyes onto Naruko.

Naruko noticing that Sasuke was looking at her with determination, looked back in equal determination to win the impromptu staring contest. His words caused her mind to reach to that part of her she never needed to access before.

Anything I want?

"Yes. Anything you want."

Eh. Naruko didn't mean to say that out loud and clamped her hand down.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yes. Anything logic, but only one thing a day. You have work and I do have things to do besides trying to be your friend."

"Ok. I agree." Naruko frowned.

"Yes."

She frowned at him further.

"Don't frown so much, you'll have to get plastic surgery before you reach thirty."

She loosened her frown and rolled her eyes. "Jerk" she muttered under her breath.

"A nickname already, then let's shake hands to seal the deal."

That earned Sasuke another nickname from Naruko's inner bitch. Bastard. It was born in conjunction with Sasuke's natural bitchiness, not that he is a female.

Sasuke stood and approached Naruko. She pulled her body away from the wall. He extended a handshake to her, and she took it. When their skin touches she felt a jolt of electricity. He didn't look affected at all, so she merely nodded.

He only needed something from me, he only wants to be a friend. He wouldn't dream of actually dating me right?

He let go of her hands and headed to the door. He nodded at her and left when the door opened. She watched as his back disappeared into the stairs.

Naruko grabbed her chest, Sasuke had made her feel awkward.

What is it with this wanting to date an asshole? She sighed and closed the door intending to take a bath while reflecting on the bizarre friendship proposal.