Naruto : Catastrophe : Chapter 58

I stumble into my apartment the next day after training, groaning. I kick my sandals off to the side, toss my keys down on the kitchen table as I pass it, and after a few more painful steps collapse onto my bed face first. The bed rocks as Sasuke sits down heavily beside me, a small sigh of relief reaching my ears. I shift my head, shooting him a feeble glare.

"I don't want to go to dinner."

Sasuke just glowers at me.

I had known as soon as we all arrived at training ground seven this morning that today was going to be rough. Sasuke was as furious as I had ever seen him, and Sakura's cheerful obliviousness had done nothing to help matters. Bastard had almost taken us all back to square one in regards to our pink-haired teammate when he snapped at her for asking him what sort of house gift his parents would like.

It took a lot of me assuring her that today was a bad day for him before she started acting normal again, and the day only went downhill from there. Sasuke was in dire need of a punching bag, and Hatake was not that punching bag. Especially not during team training. My ear still hurts from the chewing out Hatake gave it.

He was so mad he ate our lunches for real this time.

Speaking of, I groan even harder, rolling over and clutching my stomach. "Your mom better be a Bijuu in the kitchen, Sasuke. I'm about to die."

"You don't have to go," Sasuke says, for the millionth time today. "I'll tell them that you already had plans tonight."

"I wouldn't even make it to the Chunin Exams before they killed me." I chuckle. "They'd probably send Itachi to hunt me down on the spot."

"I could tell them you already made plans with the Hokage," he insists.

I roll my eyes. "They'd ask why I didn't say that last night when Itachi gave me the 'invitation'." I push off the bed with a grunt, heading for the bathroom. "Why are you getting your panties all twisted up over this, anyway? It's just dinner. How terrible can they make one dinner?"

Sasuke mutters something dark and incomprehensible behind me as I shut the door, stripping out of my sweaty shinobi attire and turning on the shower. I let it run cold, and after the first shock it feels like heaven on my burning skin. And muscles. And pride.

I hate that damn bell test.

I emerge several minutes later, a toothbrush stuck in my mouth and a towel wrapped around my waist. Sasuke is still sitting on my bed, his eyes fixated on the wall across from him, and all the pictures and scraps of paper hanging off of it.

I call it my Ode to the Yondaime. I started building it shortly after the old man informed me that Sakura's memory suppression seal wouldn't work on Tenten, and since then it's grown to some truly stupid proportions. All in all, it's a wall with any illustrations or excerpts I thought could be useful in my search for a rhyme or a reason to Sakura's abomination of a seal.

Illustrations for novices, outlining the basic continuity of a sealing circle. A ridiculous amount of subseals that could maybe sort of fit into Sakura's creation if I tilted my head and stabbed my eyes with kunai a little. Not to mention all the old wives tales of seals written on air and scrawled with the ink of the mind and such that I've copied down and stuck up there.

And all of it is centered around one sheet of paper, with the words "Fundamental Laws of Fuinjutsu" written across the top in big bold letters. There are ten in all, and all but a couple covered in question marks, little notes, and one of them I flat crossed out.

A seal can not be activated by elemental chakra.

My powering Sakura's seal had been a pretty clear break in this rule. I still have no idea why that seal accepted my chakra, which sucks for obvious reasons. My eyes flit down the others, and a familiar round of old, unanswered question rush back to the forefront of my mind. Why did the circle look like that, when this rule says this? Why did it take blood to draw it, and why not any of mine as the one to activate it? Why-

No, this isn't the time. I quickly shake that train of thought aside before it pulls me in all the way, throw my closet open, and start sifting through my shinobi clothing in search of something fancy enough for dinner with the Uchiha. I manage to turn up a pair of white civilian shorts and one of my usual plain black t-shirts with Konoha's symbol emblazoned on the chest. No stains, and not too many wrinkles. That should be fine.

I go back into the bathroom to change, idly wondering if I should wash my sandals off before we leave. They've got their fair share of dirt and blood caked onto them from training, and it's probably bad form to track that kind of stuff through a host's house. Though, aren't you supposed to take your sandals off at the door when you're visiting someone anyway?

Ah, screw it. I'm making this a bigger deal than it needs to be. Sasuke's nerves must be rubbing off on me.

I finish clothing myself and brushing my teeth, and come out of the bathroom again to find Sasuke still staring at my Fuinjutsu clusterfuck of a wall. I can't tell if he's thinking about the seal outline I showed him before our last mission, or if he's just pouting. Maybe both. You never know with those Uchiha.

"You want to grab a shower before we go?" He shakes his head. "Alright then, let's get this over with." He scowls, but gets up off the bed and follows me out the door nonetheless.

We take an easy pace out the door, not too worried about time since night has only just now fallen. Well, that's why I'm not worried. Sasuke is probably hoping we get lost somewhere and miss the whole thing. Either way, we arrive at our first destination a few minutes later. I duck into Ichiraku's and wave, grabbing Ayame's attention.

I walk out a while later with a large miso with the works, extra pork, held under my arm. It takes all my willpower not to run back in and order a couple bowls to sate my raging hunger until dinner, or just take a few samples of my gift to Sasuke's folks, but I manage to resist. I glance over at Sasuke as we resume our trip to the Uchiha Compound, frowning.

"Are you really that worried?" I ask, the ribbing tone I've been giving him all day gone.

He sighs. "I'm not worried. I know exactly what's going to happen."

I consider that in silence, except for our soft footfalls and the distant chatter of the market district. "Want me to see if the old man will split some ramen with us?" I ask quietly.

"More than you could ever know." His scowl finally fades, replaced with a little smirk. "You'd never let me hear the end of it when my parents traumatized Sakura, though."

I grin. That's the spirit, Uchiha.

The Uchiha Compound is as massive and ancient as ever when we arrive. There are a pair of Uchiha guards standing on either side of the cast iron gates, and after a brief, creepy once over with their blood red eyes, they crack them open for us. They both bow as we enter, murmuring twin 'Good evening, Sasuke-sama's to our retreating backs.

Sasuke glares murder at me, but I can't help the snicker that slips out.

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