[X] Burning Down The House
It's harder to do this with someone watching.
You know it's just Menka, and you know it's just for your own safety, but still.
You stare at the heart of the campfire and try not to think about it.
You've never been this close to a large open flame before. There's a comforting reassurance to the way it dries out your eyes, makes them water, then dries them out again. Like the crackling of the logs can be echoed in you. It makes you feel sleepy and gives you a headache, but in a good way.
You pass a hand over the flames, and feel... things you've already felt before, honestly. You touch the smoke and you feel the Wind that feeds the flame; you try to catch the sparks that fly off the fire and you close your hand on a place where that Wind used to be.
It's a chemical reaction, you can't help but think.
Without the Wind it can't live. So why is it considered an element?
Because, the answer comes, as you stretch your hands towards the flame, it is a treasure.
[embed=425,349]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38q3_VejO6s[/embed]
The first thing mankind took from the world because we
wanted it, not because we
needed it.
"She's a con, Lupin."
XD "And what exactly are we? Look, we got the stones back, it's no big deal."
"And what about all the times we don't manage to get the loot back from her, huh?"
*shrug* "Just goes to show no matter how good you get there's still room for improvement."
-_- "You sure she didn't leave those rocks in your head?"
The hearth that gave us food beyond previous imagining.
"We're gonna see naked laaaaaadies~" : D
The power that pulled the sun into the night, so we could see.
"'Jigen-sama', is it?" ^-^
"She's lovely." .
///.
The first treasure. The first magic trick.
"Ah! What a waste!"
"What? Forget the jewellery!"
"What on earth are you saying?!"
^__^ "Bein' with you like this is better."
The first thing we ever stole.
"Will you permit this humble thief... to steal you away?" :3
=
You look out across the darkened hills, and at the sky dusted with stars.
You turn the ignition, and the headlights spring to life, illuminating the road before you.
"Oh. So that's why," you say.
=
It's only when you go inside and Mom asks you what's wrong that you realize you've been crying.
=
[X] Sasuke
"He's incredibly stuck up, you know that, right?"
"What the hell are you talking about? So'm I, according to you."
"Meaning we've already filled our egomaniac quota. We don't need two."
"Y'know, if I didn't suspect you're going to grow up to be entirely asexual, I'd think you were jealous."
"Just don't turn into a fangirl, okay? I asked around, and every time there's an Uchiha in a class they attract a mob of girls who lose all sense the instant they step into the room."
XD "Not much chance of that; short, friendly and innocent isn't my type."
Thus concludes the first and last conversation you have with Shikamaru regarding your new friend's inclusion in the group.
Sasuke doesn't really get the point of cloud-watching, but he appreciates Chouji's way with desserts and right hook both. And he makes for a very enthusiastic ally in shoplifting excursions, bizarrely enough. He plays lookout, diversion and snatcher with giddy aplomb.
Preacher's daughter syndrome. If your internal commentator had a head, she'd (he'd?) nod authoritatively.
Sasuke also comes in handy, you find, when you want a scrap.
Try as you might (and you really do try, you try your hardest), you don't seem to really be making progress with your taijutsu. It's frustrating as hell; on the one hand, you easily win almost all your fights when sparring comes up, just because no one but Sasuke is anywhere close to being as fast as you, and no one can match your endurance but that one blond kid (who if he were any slower would be standing still).
On the other hand, because of this, you don't actually get any real practice in taijutsu itself, unless it's Sasuke you're fighting. You can go over the kata 'til you're blue in the face, but it isn't worth anything if you never get to put them properly into practice.
It isn't a detrimental problem (you don't really think you want to be a taijutsu type, especially now that you're top of your class in Trap-Making), but it's still a problem. And independent sparring with Sasuke is a pretty decent solution; he's really keen to improve his speed, and you're the only kid his age faster than him, so it works out beautifully.
It's walking home after one of these training sessions that you meet Sasuke's brother.
For the third time.
"Hey, Weasel, how've you been?" you ask cheerfully.
"Quite well, thank you, Yamanaka-san," he replies.
"Oh, pfft!" You wave off his formalities. "After what we've been through and you turning out to be Sakkun's ever-elusive 'nii-san', you can call me Ino."
"You know each other?" Sasuke asks, looking back and forth between you.
"I rescued a maiden from his wicked clutches and then later I tried to cure his melancholy with my feminine charms," you explain.
"Indeed," Itachi agrees. "Ino-san is most adept at soothing the raging soul of a hardened shinobi."
"Ararara~ but we shouldn't speak of such things in front of a child," you say with a feigned blush.
O.O "what."
=
"Mom, may I present Uchiha Sasuke? Sakkun, this is Yamanaka Takae, my mother. Sasuke is top of the class in taijutsu and has a very fine singing voice. Mom was a nationally-ranked koto player when she was younger and she's the foremost poison expert in Konohagakure."
You're a little on edge, introducing your Mom to an Uchiha (even a nice one); every second you're waiting for Sasuke to say the wrong thing. You're friends and everything, but you won't hesitate to pop him in the mouth to bring him back in line.
No one talks down to Mom.
It goes well, though. He's obviously surprised that your mother's a civie, but apparently being a poison-brewer is enough for him to treat her with the same respect he'd give a ninja adult. Which... still means he doesn't use any suffixes, but you'll take what you can get.
Menka is wary around Sasuke at first, but warms up to him when it becomes apparent that he will happily play tag for literally
hours uninterrupted, something you outgrew at age four. Menka doesn't speak in front of him, mindful of your dad's prohibition even now, but it doesn't seem to put a damper on Sasuke trying to include him in the conversation anyway.
"Cats are really smart," is all he'll say about it when asked. "Even the ones that don't talk."
[X] Take more naps and bond with [REDACTED]
It really isn't fair, you find yourself reflecting, that you're only allowed to marry one person. If you could work your will, you'd marry whoever you want.
Specifically, you'd marry Goemon-san and this absolutely ravishing lady who's just taken up residence in your head.
Never mind that they aren't real (or at least, not real the way other people are real), you'll find a way.
Everything about her is gorgeous; lustrous hair, a figure to kill for, full, sensuous lips, and eyes that burn a hole through you when she looks your way. No matter what she wears, she always looks fantastic, and she's the centre of any room she walks into.
Oh, but it gets better. She's an infiltration expert; governess, lady's maid, elite tutor, private secretary, her resume is stocked with experience and references from some of the most wealthy and respectable people in the world. No one
ever questions her presence, not even other women (whom you've noticed have a tendency to be more suspicious of one another than guys are), and when she takes them for everything they have, someone else inevitably gets the blame.
And when she's not undercover, woohoo baby. She has these special guns that fit right in one hand and fire repeatedly without needing to reload, and she's not afraid to use them. One of them, a bigger one, can spray a whole room full of bullets in the time it takes the average chuunin to shit his pants in terror. And those
motorcycles she rides! They're like Tora on wheels!
Her name is Mine Fujiko, and you are terribly torn between wanting her, and wanting to
be her.
=
Every now and then, you like to walk home from school by yourself, instead of with the guys. It gives you time to think, decompress from the long school day, and-
"Hello, Ami."
- get ambushed by fangirls, apparently. -_-
The purple-haired girl, or Ami, as you've recently learned she's called, scowls as she steps out from behind the tree. "Think you're pretty clever with that sensing, don't you, neko-buta?"
"Not really," you reply. "I think I'm pretty clever with my actual, consistently-demonstrated cleverness."
"You little freak," Ami says, shaking her head in disgust. "I don't know what you did to Sasuke-kun to force him to go out with you, but you're going to stop it right now."
Huh. And to think, you thought this was going to be boring. "All right, now I'm curious; what, exactly, makes you think I did something to Sakkun?"
"His name is Sasuke!" she roars impotently. "And you must have done something! Sasuke-kun doesn't talk to any girls except you!"
"... he talked to Hinata-chan yesterday morning," you say, incredulous. Is this the 'fangirl logic' Shika-chan's warned you about from time to time?
She steps forward, looming over you with her extra three inches. "You think I don't see what you're doing? The way you ignore all the girls and only have boyfriends, the way you talk like a boy like you think it's cool, the way you always try to make him laugh?"
Wow, she is
really working herself up into a fine lather, here.
"You're
pathetic," Ami declares. "A shabby little tomboy from a nothing little clan, trying to get close to Sasuke-kun to improve your station in life. If you try to leech off of him any more, I'll make you regret the day you were born."
[X] Troll route. "Not as much as you're going to regret that shirt when you look back at pictures of yourself, I assure you. Yikes."
[X] Fujiko route. "Ara, and what do you suppose Sakkun will think of you when he asks me why I'm avoiding him, and I tell him the truth?"
[X] Write-in.
