Birthday Disaster

Chapter 4

"You want to leave Konoha? And do what gaki?" Tsunade shouted, slamming her hands onto her desk. Papers flew off and littered the floor. Shizune now had something to focus on and hurried to pick them up before they mixed with the other stacks around the room. "What are you thinking? Have you even-" Tsunade then saw Naruto's face. Not the one he showed to everyone. No the one only those close to him could see in his eyes. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Naruto looked away breaking their eye contact. "I just need to get out of here. You know?"

Oh how she knew. Tsunade had been watching the gaki since she had arrived in Konoha. So she knew a great deal about what was happening in her adoptive little brother's life. In a superficial village such as Konoha everything revolved around success which basically meant the world revolved around Sasuke Uchiha. When he left they all allowed Naruto to fill the void. After all he was the one who was going to bring their world, Sasuke, back. Now that Sasuke had returned Naruto was once again shunned and ignored. Not as badly as before but enough that the bright smile she knew and loved was fading behind his fools mask.

Tsunade looked at Naruto as she thought of all of this. Naruto looked tired and maybe a long term mission was what he needed. Tsunade smiled softly. And she knew just which one that would be perfect. "Alright Naruto if you're sure about this I have a mission for you."

"I'm sure baa-chan." Naruto instantly replied giving a small glimpse of his usual self. This was proof that Tsunade was doing the right thing.

"Okay. Naruto you are going to Suna and replace the ambassador there. Suoh-san has requested for some time off since it seems his wife is getting close to giving birth to their child. He also claims he is forgetting what green looks like. Now where is that file?" Tsunade pushed a few files aside, the tinkle of sake bottles filled the air before she pulled out a the missing file. "Ah here it is! This holds the details to what you need to know and do while your are in Suna. Now go pack and I'll see you in a couple of months."

"Bye baa-chan and thanks." Naruto smiled and left to his small apartment.

"Are you sure this is a wise decision Lady Tsunade? Wasn't Shikamaru the one that was going to be assigned to this mission?" Shizune asked as placed the loose papers back on the desk.

Tsunade sighed and laid back in her chair. "If anything I think this is a better idea Shizune. It fulfills two requirements. Not only did Naruto get out of this village but Gaara has been requesting to visit him."

Shizune smiled. "That is a rather good idea Lady Tsunade but," with this Shizune fixed Tsunade with a scary stern look, "don't think I didn't hear those bottles behind there. You've been drinking again instead of working again!"

"So you're sending him on a mission?" a rather familiar voice called out stopping the small lecture that was about to begin, much to Tsunade's relief.

"Kakashi." Tsunade greated the silver headed ninja.

"Yo!" He smiled an lowered the familiar orange book to face her.

"What have I told you about using the window as an entrance?" Tsunade asked glaring.

"If the security here was better then I wouldn't have to enter the window. But since the security is not up to par I have to enter through the window to talk to you."

"That makes no sense. Anyway what is your reason for coming here and it had better be a good one." Tsunade said cracking her knuckles.

"Heh." Kakashi felt a sweat drop roll down his spine. Honestly what is it with all the women in Konoha? Did they all get together and practice threatening the human male? "Actually I came to talk about our number one knuckle headed ninja of unpredictability, one Naruto Uzumaki."

"Do you know why he requested to leave Konoha?" Tsunade asked spinning her chair to face the ninja fully.

Kakashi sighed. "It seems that no one attended Naruto's birthday, nor did any actually remember it. He's rather upset about it. He even insulted me saying that I had to earn respect and maintain it!"

"Isn't that the truth." Shizune muttered to only fall under Kakashi's questioning look. "Oh nothing!"

Kakashi looked back at Tsunade. "To make matters worse they went to Ino's party instead. Even Sasuke attended though I don't know why he did with Sakura and Ino-chan there."

"Those little-" A knock on the door interrupted Tsunade mid rant to allow an unsuspecting Uchiha enter the room. When her eyes focused on the raven haired boy Tsunade saw red. Knocking her desk over she ran over and punched the wall next to Sasuke's head. "Well look who it is. We were just talking about you, Uchiha."

"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune called out as all the papers, files and scrolls scattered across the room. Pens and seals were hidden under the flurry of white as the desk fell flipped on it's surface.

Kakashi almost fell out the window, holding onto the edge, thinking that he was glad he was not Sasuke right now.

"Hokage-sama..." Sasuke asked. It was taking all of his will not to turn around and run out that door. While he had the confidence he could defeat the old woman he could tell this was not your average hatred. Oh no. This was a rage caused by something else entirely and it would be best to assume it would result in a strength spike.

"Uchiha could you please explain why you spent October 10th, your teammates' birthday, with fangirls, fangirls who you say you hate. Celebrating the day your best friend lost his parents and had the kyuubi sealed inside of him! How you did not get him anything for that day. Please explain!" Tsunade growled. She would not kill the Uchiha, after all that would just be undoing all the hard work it took for the gaki to get the idiot back. No she would wait to hear his answer before she knocked him around. Broken bones can be mended.

"I actually came to find Naruto. I want to talk to him about it first." Sasuke stated calmly.

Tsunade searched his face before smirking and moving back. Laughing she righted her desk and chair. Sitting calmly she entwined her fingers. "Well you're a little late Uchiha. You missed the gaki. Your conversation is just going to have to wait until he gets back."

Now this caught Sasuke's attention. "Gets back?"

Oh now this was going to be fun. "Yes gets back. That is what I said. Naruto has been assigned to a solo mission. Rather high ranking but unfortunately that's all I can tell you about it. Hopefully he will make it back here in one piece."

Now Uchiha's never show emotion in public it was something that they just didn't do especially Sasuke but if you looked closely you could see a slight change in the width of his eyes. And with the eyes of a hawk Tsunade saw this change and felt a smug feeling of satisfaction. Let the Uchiha sweat this out for awhile. "You let the dobe go on a mission alone!"

"He's a jounin, its expected he go on missions even the ones that are dangerous. Now if you could leave us alone we were in the middle of a meeting and it is not for your ears." Tsunade looked over at Shizune who walked over and shut the door behind the Uchiha as he walked slowly out the door.

"You are an evil person Lady Tsunade." Kakashi spoke. His book was once again open and his nose nearly touching the pages. If she didn't know any better Tsunade would think he needed glasses. "You know Naruto is almost safer in Suna than here."

Tsunade smirked. "Oh I know. He just needs to learn a lesson from this. Maybe loose some of that arrogance of his."

"Like I said, evil." Kakashi said as he slipped away. A certain dolphin would probably like to know about this development.

In a world full of uncertainties it sometimes is a single moment that alters the flow of fate.

"Stupid dobe, accepting suicide missions alone!" Sasuke muttered to himself as he rushed to his teammate's appartment. "What in the world is he thinking?" Reaching the small apartment he pushed open the unlocked window and jumped in. "Dobe!" Silence was his only answer. Frowning Sasuke activated his sharingan and surveyed the small apartment. Strangely enough it was clean, too clean in Sasuke's opinion, and there was no signature from Naruto. "Damn it." Releasing the sharingan Sasuke exited the same way he came in, shutting the window harshly. "Stupid dobe not locking the windows." Well there was only one thing to do and that was try to reach Konoha's entrance before the dobe left.

In that single moment when everything matters the entire world can be changed by the decisions that are made.

Reaching the exit Sasuke saw no familiar orange outfit and sighed. Naruto wasn't there yet.

"Ah! Sasuke-kun!" a boisterous voice shouted out jerking Sasuke's attention. A very familiar green clad ninja rushed up to the raven. A large smile planted on his face. "This is a most glorious day! Getting to see Naruto and Sasuke before even arriving home is a sign of the youthfulness of the world we live in!"

Sometimes that moment that decides everything just slips away and the future is sealed.

TBC