"You played me." I scathingly glare at the victoriously grinning Ino.
"Yes." Her grin widens. "Yes I did."
"Ino have I mentioned how nice it is that you came along with us?" Shikamaru says with just a hint of a devious grin dancing on his face. "Because it is."
"Hate you." I let my head thunk onto the table. "Hate you all."
Ino manipulated me. She tricked me into going to lunch with the gang. I'm actually pretty impressed, but that's overshadowed by my own sheer stupidity for not noticing it.
This is how the whole trip is going to be. I can feel it.
"Come on, you don't mean that! We're all friends here!" Naruto pats me on the back. "Uh… Alvarcus?"
"What?" I don't bother to look at him. I just lift my head up and slam it into the table again.
"Don't freak out, but you've got a lump on your back." Naruto poke me in the back this time. "And it's huge. Is there a doctor on this ship?"
"Are you being serious?" I quit slamming my head into the table to look at him.
"Yes. You've got to get that looked at." He's being completely serious.
"Dude." Shikamaru drones out. "It's his masks."
"Oh yeah that's a thing." Naruto quits poking me.
"How the hell did you forget that I have masks stitched onto my back?" I aggressively asks while thunking my head into the table again. I need to kill some brain cells if I have to be around this level of stupidity.
Oh wait, I don't even have brain cells anymore. Fantastic. I can't make myself more stupid for this.
"Masks go on your face." Naruto shrugs. "It's weird to have them anywhere else."
"Okay that's a surprisingly good point." Shikamaru admits. "It is strange to have them anywhere else."
"Can I leave now?" I whine with my face pressed into the table.
"No." Ino lays down the law. "And quit trying to break the table! We need to use it still!"
"Shouldn't you be more worried about his face?" Shikamaru asks. "That's gotta hurt. He's not being gentle at all."
"This is nothing for him." Ino dares me with her eyes to slam my head into the table one more time. "If either of you saw him during the latest Chunin Exams neither of you would be concerned at all. You would not believe the amount of abuse he can take."
"How much?" Shikamaru is assessing me out of the corner of his eye. Great, he's trying to get a plan together to capture me and take me back to Konoha.
"He told me that he's taken a beating from Lee with five Gates open." Naruto supplies. "That's impressive."
"No shit?" Shikamaru fully turns to me. "Lee kicked your ass?"
"No, I won that fight." I'm going to call that a win.
"Damn." Shikamaru praises me in his own way.
"Can we not talk about that?" I whine as I softly - so Ino won't get mad - place my head back on the table. "Better yet you all could let me leave."
"No." All three of them reply at the same time.
"Worst. Vacation. Ever." I groan out.
"Hey Naruto." Shikamaru steers the conversation away from me. Thankfully. "How's training under Jiraiya been? That's gotta be cool, being trained by a Sannin."
"It's is pretty awesome when we actually train." Naruto smiles fondly on him memories. "I've learned a whole bunch under him, I'm way better than I was before. He's taught me lots of jutsu and we've worked extensively on my taijutsu. I'm really glad he helped me with that, I was terrible. But one of the most important lessons he taught me was to plan."
"You fancy yourself a strategist?" Shikamaru asks in interest. I don't blame him, that's kind of his own thing.
"Nope!" Naruto plasters a huge grin on his face. "I'm more of a three steps ahead kinda guy. You're fifty steps ahead. I couldn't hold a candle to you. But I do have a whole new bunch of tricks with Shadow Clones."
"Like what?" Ino asks.
"I can use henge to transform them into whatever I want." Naruto boats proudly. "It's a lot of fun to make one into a kunai, throw it at an enemy, then have it transform back once the clone is in punching range. That's just one of many."
"Do you still need a clone to help make the Rasengan?" I ask. "That's a huge weakness."
"Yeah." Naruto wilts a little bit. "I'm working on it though, it's way more complex than it looks."
"Is it though?" I ask again.
"You don't know how it works. Trust me." Naruto assures us, well me in particular.
"Yeah. Sure. Let's go with that." My words cause Shikamaru to quirk an eyebrow at me. Interesting, he might have caught me. I've got to be more careful around him, that kid is way too observant and smart for me to let my guard down. "What about you two? Learn anything cool recently?"
"Anko has started to show me some of her other tricks." Ino admits. "You know, besides the coat. She hasn't decided which one to teach me though. She's still debating over which one to start with."
"I've gotten better with the shadows." Shikamaru shrugs. "That's about it really."
Smart boy. He didn't reveal anything to me so he can use whatever he wants to later. It's exactly what I would do.
"How about you?" Shikamaru asks. "You're learning under a Sannin too, I'm sure you've learned cool things."
"You're not wrong." I'll play his little game. "I've learned a plethora of new jutsu of every element. My ninjutsu library is insane. But what really stands out for me would be my Spiders."
"Really?" Shikamaru's interest is piqued. "You've signed a Summoning Contract? Wait. No duh. Choji and Ino both told me about how you caught them. That was a dick move by the way."
"I keep getting reminded of that recently." By literally everyone here but Anko. "I like Keji. He's got style."
"It was certainly an… unique experience." Ino winces as she remembers that particular encounter. "Not something I want to do again."
"I promise nothing." I quickly interject.
"So!" Naruto eagerly cuts in. "Anyone got any fun mission stories to tell?"
"Practically all of mine since leaving are not fun or make me look crazy. Or both. Sadly it's usually both." I blandly tell everyone. "Though there was the time everyone but you fought ANBU for me. That was entertaining!"
"That happened!?" I have Naruto's full attention.
"No one has told you about that? Nevermind, dumb question. You've been out of the village." I metaphorically roll up my sleeves in preparation for story time. "Alright so here's how it all went down. Ino, Shikamaru, feel free to chime in for the parts you were there for."
...
Meanwhile, At the Base
"Sasuke!" Sakon whisper shouts in fear to the Uchiha as he's walking down what he thought was a deserted hall.
Sasuke halts his forward march and looks around, Sakon isn't in sight. Maybe he's hearing things?
"Over here Sasuke!" Sakon whisper shouts fearfully again.
Sasuke's gaze is drawn to the noise and he finally sees Sakon. He's inside a room and barely has the door cracked, it's just enough to see one of his eyes.
"Sakon?" Sasuke questioningly asks. "That you?"
"Yes!" Sakon quickly confirms. "Come in here, we need your help! Please!"
"We?" Sasuke asks as he strolls over to the room and enters it. "Hello Jirobo, Kidomaru and you too Sakon. You three look like shit."
"That's because we haven't slept in two days!" Kidomaru shouts in one part anger and three parts fear.
"Why the hell not?" Sasuke bluntly asks.
"It's Alvarcus!" Jirobo yells so forcefully spittle flies from his mouth.
"Uh… what?" Sasuke isn't following this at all. Alvarcus is out on his 'totally not a vacation' mission so what could he possibly have done to the Sound Three?
"No one has seen him in days!" Sakon crazily supplies.
"The last we saw him was when we pranked him with the Prince of Sound thing!" Kidomaru continues.
"When he swore vengeance upon us! He's been planning his revenge for days! DAYS! You've got to help us!" Jirobo finishes.
Sasuke has an evil thought. It's not an overly complex thought or even one that requires much effort to do, it's very simple.
He's going to not tell them that Alvarcus is on a mission and let them stew for longer.
"I'm staying out of this." Sasuke turns around to leave. "He made me into a Butler. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was? I want no part of what he has in store for you three."
"WAIT!" All three of them shout out in fear.
"Just go check on him?" Sakon asks. "See what he's up to, maybe find out what he has planned for us? That's all we're asking!"
"Hmm…" Sasuke watches as hope flutters faintly across each of their faces. Then he crushes it. "No. This is all on you." Sasuke steps out of the room and sends a look over his shoulder. "For the short time we knew each other it was interesting. I can't believe I'm about to admit this, but you three were tolerable. That's a compliment coming from me."
"Sasuke please!" Jirobo begs him.
"Nope. Good luck surviving!" Sasuke slams the door in their faces. "Now I see why Alvarcus does that kind of stuff, it's entertaining. I wonder how he's doing?"
...
A/N:
If we hit 500 Power Stones by the end of this week, I'll drop an extra chapter as a thank-you!
Thanks for the support! ;)
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