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Sleep Rayemars The hotel was small, and average--neither seedy nor fancy--but just barely on the other side of respectable that it was willing to rent rooms to shinobi without open fuss. They might have been a little short-changed on the meal, but Kakashi said nothing, and Sasuke followed him, and Sakura was tired from chakra use and Naruto didn't have the most discriminating tastes, anyway. Tired wasn't actually the right word for Sakura; she was exhausted. She'd been working at the hospital for three days straight before they were assigned the mission, and then the client they'd been delivering the message to had been arrogant enough that a bit of a show of force was necessary--and, as Kakashi commented wryly after they'd left, since the message was secret he couldn't exactly contact Konoha and demand someone reimburse him for that part of the house. Kakashi hadn't been able to get more than two rooms, and those not close to each other, so he decided to take the same room as her so she could sleep without concern and told Naruto and Sasuke not to fight or he'd hand them both over to Tsunade. (It was a half-empty threat, but they couldn't take it any way but seriously. This wasn't the first mission that Sasuke had been allowed out of Fire country for, but it was one of the few, and there was still the feeling that the slightest problem could have him restricted to within the village walls again for another two years or more. What they didn't know--and it was fortunate, because Sasuke would be under lock and key in jail if they did--was that he had no reason to run away anymore. Itachi wasn't dead yet, but Sakura had quietly told him the truth a few months after he'd been allowed to walk the streets again, and they'd noticed the graffiti on Naruto's door. Jiraiya and Kakashi and Tsunade and Yamato had done their best to suppress all news, but rumors had spread. Sakura's tone told him she had suspicions of how they'd spread, and her bruised knuckles told him she'd been doing something about it, but she didn't talk about that part. She then asked him to keep quiet, because it really was Naruto's secret to have told and she didn't want to hurt their teammate like that. Sasuke had done so, because he felt he owed her that much. After all, she'd basically just told him that Itachi would come to him, as long as he stayed by Naruto's side. It would take longer than finding the man himself, but Sasuke could wait. Waiting gave him more time to train; and he needed that, because he had to practice everything he'd learned at Oto in privacy, which was hard to come by now.) The hotel was small, and average, but the wall thickness was crap. The people in the room to their right were fighting, so Naruto and Sasuke shoved the few bits of furniture toward that end until there was almost enough room to lay both futons out with the heads facing the empty one. (Naruto had first suggested they arm wrestle for who had to sleep closer to that wall, but Sasuke had told him to shut up and move the lamp.) The futons folded slightly where they were compressed by the walls, but it was bearable. Sasuke was actually halfway to sleep when they heard someone unlock the door to the room they were facing. "Dammiiiiiiiit!" Naruto groaned, throwing an arm over his face. Sasuke dragged the blanket up over his ears, but then pushed it down a minute later when the warm air was too irritating to breathe and the people hadn't made any noise beyond some low conversation that he could sufficiently block out. Naruto had yawned, also about to fall asleep again, and let his arm drop back to the top edge of the futon where a kunai was resting. He grabbed it reflexively when there was a heavy thud against the wall. Sasuke did the same with the one under his blanket. "Can't people fucking fight in their own homes?" Naruto muttered, and there was a second thump and then a sharp, pleased female cry. Naruto sat up. Sasuke rolled over enough to give the wall a disbelieving look. "You're kidding me," Naruto said, staring. "Fuck," Sasuke muttered, turning back over and yanking the blanket above his head again. "Can't they at least use the bed?" Naruto demanded. "Or the other wall?" "Shut up, they'll hear you." "We can hear them!" "Shut up," Sasuke said again, "we're in enemy territory." Naruto groaned, though quieter than before, and flopped back onto his futon. His face screwed up when the woman cried again. Sasuke kept the blanket over his head, determined to outwait them and only occasionally thinking of shoving the kunai through the thin wall. There was probably barely even any plaster between the rooms--he could get it through. The couple had the decency to move away from the wall soon, though, and the noise receded slightly. It was still close enough to be irritating, since it sounded like they'd thrown the futon nearby (if they'd laid it out at all), because the gasps and grunts probably weren't so loud that the distance and wall would be muffling them to the current level. Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut and tried to recall how many minutes had already passed. Hopefully they wouldn't take more than a half-hour. Hopefully. It was almost annoying that they'd moved away from the wall--he couldn't imagine stabbing one of them in the thigh anymore. He could hear Naruto tossing around under his own blanket; he'd been muttering at first, but he'd fallen quiet pretty soon. "Hey," Naruto said, quietly, after Sasuke had counted off three and a half minutes. "That woman--don't you think she sounds like Sakura-chan might?" ". . . ." Sasuke pushed down the blanket and turned his head enough to give Naruto the most incredulous look he could manage, which was a pretty damn good one. ". . . What the hell?" Naruto was lying on his stomach, staring at the wall with one arm propping up his chin. He pursed his lips at Sasuke's tone. "I'm just . . . saying, you know, don't they have the same kind of--vocal range?" Sasuke kept staring at him. ". . . I think Sakura would fucking kill you if she heard that." "I'm not gonna tell her, geez. . . ." "Did someone put drugs in your food?" Sasuke asked seriously. "Captain Kakashi's probably still awake." Naruto glared at him briefly, but it was hard to tell whether he felt insulted or he was pissed that Sasuke was still using that term. (Sasuke hadn't referred to Kakashi as his teacher since his return. Naruto had ragged him on it, and Sakura had as well in a subtler way, until Kakashi told them privately not to waste their time--it didn't bother him. "You don't feel the same about someone after you betray them," he'd added, cutting Naruto off before he could start another protest, and his tone reminded the teenager that Kakashi had brushed off teaching him in favor of Sasuke that month before the exam and before everything went to hell. The tone ended the conversation and the situation.) "I'm just--augh, never mind," Naruto snapped, rolling onto his side and facing away. Sasuke dragged the blanket back up to his chin and tried to guess what number to pick up from. The man grunted again, and the woman made a high little gasp that faded quickly. Sasuke pressed a thumb against his temple. "She does," Naruto muttered, half into his pillow. Sasuke let the hand drop over his eyes. "Maybe a little," he conceded in hopes of ending the discussion. "Now shut up already." Naruto made a smug little triumphant noise before falling quiet once more. Half a minute passed, and he began fidgeting under his blanket again. Sasuke focused on the rustling as white noise, picked ten minutes, and began counting from there. He was almost at twelve when Naruto shifted again and made a small smothered grunt; the number derailed abruptly as Sasuke realized just what the rustling was. He almost shoved the blanket down to stare at him, but then thought better of it. "Are you really--go to the fucking bathroom for that, you . . . ugh." "I couldn't hear there." "Freak." "Prude," Naruto replied, and added, "shut the hell up." Sasuke almost asked if this was something else Jiraiya had taught him, but then bit the question down. Two years still wasn't enough time for them to discuss anything that could be connected to what had happened between twelve and fifteen. Instead, he rolled onto his side, facing the wall, and said, "Like the guy isn't interrupting more than me," which was stupid but he had to say something. This was just . . . weird. "Nah, he sou--" and then Naruto cut himself off and went silent again. Sasuke paused, and then snorted and dragged the blanket further over his head. He curled his legs in slightly when the motion exposed his feet. He wouldn't fall asleep--not on his side, with his back to the door--but at least he could block out half the noise. How much longer was that damn couple going to take?! Longer than Naruto, it turned out. Sasuke might have mocked him for that, if he hadn't been busy pretending that the other teenager didn't exist. Naruto flopped over onto his back again, made a comfortable stretching noise, and settled in. Sasuke counted off another minute, and then said, "Go wash your hands." "Prude." "Unsanitary bastard." The blanket rustled again as Naruto shoved it back and sat up. "Girl." Sasuke pushed one hand out from under the quilt just enough to flip him off. Despite the fact that Naruto had gotten more sleep than him--he'd fallen asleep in time to miss the couple's second round, while Sasuke kept his eyes closed and tried to decide if there was any way he could set off an explosive tag down the hall without Kakashi knowing it was him (he decided no in the end)--Sasuke was the one done packing first. He was standing in the hall, waiting for either Naruto to finish or Sakura or Kakashi to turn the corner, when the woman from last night stepped out of her room. He knew it hadn't been Sakura, obviously, but it was still slightly odd to see the differences; her eyes were brown instead of green, and the hair was all wrong--too long, less body, dark. She noticed him looking, spotted his forehead protector, and nodded faintly. "Hello." "Nn," he replied. And then, because yesterday had been the weirdest night ever, he added dryly, "Did you have a good time last evening?" The woman frowned at him, and then caught on. Sasuke watched with apathetic interest as she flushed, the deep kind that started from the back of the neck and spread upward slowly, and turned partly away, eyes on the threshold of her own door. Naruto came out then, noticed the woman, noticed the half-smirk on Sasuke's face, and rolled his eyes. "Sorry, lady, don't mind my friend," he said as he passed by. "He's just an asshole." She didn't reply. Naruto started to shove Sasuke in the arm, but he blocked it and began walking to the end of the hall. Naruto draped an arm over his shoulders once they had turned the corner. "She was cute!" Sasuke gave him a look. "Hey, it could have sucked if she were ugly. You know? But she was hot!" "Stop talking about it," Sasuke replied, mildly unnerved and pushing Naruto's arm off. "Kakashi-sensei, that was the worst hotel ever!" Naruto complained once they were on the road out of the town. "We had to listen to the people next to us having sex! I didn't get any sleep." "Oh, really?" Kakashi asked with mild interest. Sakura made a sound between an 'ew' and a laugh. "Yeah, ask Sasuke. Next time don't be such a cheapskate and get us a place with walls." Kakashi didn't glance over at him, but Sasuke readjusted his pack's straps and strode slightly ahead anyway. Sakura caught pace with him a few moments later, glancing back over her shoulder at Naruto and Kakashi. "Did that really happen?" "I don't want to talk about it," Sasuke replied. Sakura giggled behind a hand. Definitely not covered in the standard etiquette books. |