Reflected Scars

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Doesn't mean if you still wanna still leave, 'praise you oh great one!' reviews, I accept those just as happily!

MORE ON THE PLOT:

Next chapter is a dream, so be prepared.


Chapter 9
Cookie bits

*Splash, splash, splash*

Rain spattered at his toes as the youth stood in the silhouette of his open door. Closing it he limped around the kitchen table, trying to get the stinging, pricking feeling out of his leg. The clock on the wall clicked the seconds away as it reached 5am. He had slept longer then he had in the past week, but the dreams were getting worse. more real.

His ankle was now red and numb to touch. He wanted to go for a walk, a run, anything to get him out of the house and into the open, but the winds and rains were as relentless as ever and proved to be too much for him. He also knew that if he were to go out and get sick it would be even worse with the stupid dreams.

There was no meeting that day, he could tell that without being told. But he wanted to see his teammates, the few comrades he had. Someone to pester and annoy, so he wouldn't feel so alone. He could ask Sakura out again. 'Ya never know, someday she's gotta give up and say yes!' he thought. 'Maybe I'll beat Sasuke in training practice too. Came close last time'...

'Wait...'

'Maybe if I exhaust myself then I'll be too tired to dream! Ya, that's it!!' And with that in mind, the storm that raged outside the thin walls of his apartment building was ignored. Watching the rain and wind wasn't going to do anything but make him sleepy.

So the rest of the day was spent with persistent pushups and sit-ups and chakra control training. He ate breakfast around seven a.m. when he couldn't ignore the grumbling of his stomach anymore. Then he did all the dishes, made his bed, swept the floors, and cleaned up anything else he could find. He even moved the bed and sofa and cleaned under there. He ate again at noon when all the cleaning was completed.

The storm outside threw paper and mud against the windows making it very difficult to see anything. Not that it mattered, only gave him more incentive to get back to training. But even after another eight hours of being stuck in his house, doing training exercises, the youthful blond still didn't feel it was enough to allow him a dreamless sleep. So he ate supper and played with the radio on the counter till it managed to pick up a half decent station with some good tunes.

He half-heartedly hummed the songs aloud as he, for once, cooked something other then ramen. An hour and a half later he was seated on his bed with an old scroll of ninja technique from his days at the academy, and a plate of hot cinnamon cookies on the night table.

Naruto read the scroll over as he bit into another fresh cookie. The dough still hot, he rolled it around his mouth and sucked air into his lungs quickly to cool it off enough not to burn him. He didn't often cook something other then ramen for his own pleasure. He really didn't need to. Ramen was cheap, tasted good and was easy. No preparing, no planning, and a quick clean up. He could survive on it for weeks at a time if needed, without the craving for other foods. Besides, Naruto had a horrible sweet tooth when it came right down to it. The three dozen cookies he'd just made hadn't been cool enough to touch for more then ten minutes and he had already eaten about five. And he sincerely felt he was pacing himself.

Re-reading his old school notes took up a few more hours of his time; till he noticed the winds had changed. The rain had stopped beating against the windows, and everything was calm, quiet. He put his old scrolls away in the closet and the rest of the cookies in the teddy bear cookie jar next to the fridge. Getting dressed in black pants and a gray shirt he locked the door behind him as he left to train in the forest for the rest of the night.

~*~*~*7:00am*~*~*~*~

*yawn*

Sasuke watched the blond sit and wait at the bridge again. He was there at his usual time and again Naruto was there before him...'he didn't sleep again last night..' his mind told him.

"Morning SASUKE!" came the near-scream welcoming that brought him from his thoughts.

'But he always has energy!' Sasuke shook his head and joined his teammate on the bridge. "Hn"

"And you're just as pleasant as ever."

"And you're just as annoying as ever."

Sasuke glared at Naruto, and Naruto glared right back. Anyone passing by would have felt an intense hatred, strong enough to make them turn tail and run. Naruto glared at Sasuke with all the dirty-look power his tired eyes could muster.

'There's got to be a reason for those stupid dreams. Maybe I should ask Sakura? ... Hell no!' Naruto thought turning away and frowning to himself. 'Bad enough the other night... I don't wanna tell her I'm afraid of dreams. Maybe I'll ask Kakashi later if it happens again... Maybe it's a Ninjutsu someone is using on me? At least I know he won't go blabbing to Mr. Perfect here. OH ya! I was glaring at him! ... Oops... '

"You're not worth a fight this early in the morning!" the blond declared. Sasuke ignored him and leaned against the post.

'He's starting to show fatigue.' He tumbled some thoughts about in his head. 'Stupid, should ask for help when he needs it. Baka!'

"Morning Sasuke-kun!" came another way to cheery voice which he chose to ignore.

'Sasuke-kun AND Naruto are here early.'

"Morning Sakura!!" Naruto said.

"Hey..."

And so the trio waited like they usually did every morning for their forever-late teacher to arrive.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Garbage, garbage, garbage! Eck! It should be a law that all garbage cans have snap lids so when it blows the garbage will stay in the cans!" exclaimed Sakura as she tried to kick off some wet paper that had latched onto the bottom of her shoe.

'That's so dumb...' Sasuke thought poking at another couple of pieces of unmentionable garbage that littered the sidewalk. 'But true.'

The mission for the day had been to help clean up the village. The storm, while it didn't do a lot of physical damage to any of the buildings, did knock down many trees and just caused an over all big mess to clean up. They spent hours cleaning up garbage, and helping remove trees before they stopped for a rest in the shade of an undamaged tree in the village park.

The sun was burning hot and without a breath of wind to aid those who worked to restore the village back to its former glory. It seemed unreal for it to have been blowing so hard, without a ray of sunlight the day before and now just the opposite. It made nature itself seem off balance. There was the odd bird that fluttered by, but not so much as a chirp was heard the whole day. For Naruto everything added to the hazy feeling that wrapped around him. A long day, that's what it felt like, a very long day, that was still far from over.

"... live next to the beach so I'm going to practice some water Ninjutsus. Well after I go swimming. It's been so long since I've seen them, I can't remember what they look like. I know Nanna wears glasses, but I'm not sure about Uncle... He might now a' days...." Sakura's voice interrupted his zone out and brought him back to reality. She was in the middle of telling them where she and her family were going for the holiday. Some uncle she had somewhere had a house near water, or something like that, was what he gathered from it all.

'That's her plans.' he turned and looked at the last member of his team. 'Ya. He's going training somewhere for the week. Some old Uchiha clan training ground on the other side of the mountains. Place's supposed to be so well hidden, most Jounins can't find it unless they know where to go.... lucky bastard.' Naruto himself had no plans. Well nothing other then the usual. Train, train and more training. He was almost positive everyone else he knew had something to do or somewhere to go. Even Iruka was going to be away for the week. He was taking his new class on a field trip to the Rock Country. Naruto smiled to himself as he thought about Iruka's new class. They were going to be a handful. He knew this from experience; after all he had trained those kids himself! His own private entourage! The Konohamaru Corp!

"Coming dope?"

The statement made him open his eyes. A dark, blurry figure stood half way across the park. It seemed to be referring to him. The blond glanced out of the corner of his eye to where Sakura and Sasuke had been sitting and found it empty. His eyes moved back to the now clearer figured half way across the park. It was Sasuke and Sakura heading back toward the center of the village. He yawned and stretched as he stood and followed. He had almost fallen asleep. He had to be careful.

*~*~**Sasuke's Point of View~*~*~*

Sasuke stood ready to leave after Kakashi appeared and instructed them to help with the clean up on main street. Sakura ran ahead of him eager to get the job done and over with as soon as possible. There was only one more day left before Saturday. The official, first day of the holiday. He himself was heading out for the full week. A cabin far off on the other side of the mountain hidden from sight was his destination.

He had gone there a few times when he was smaller. He knew the rumors around the village for a long time now, said it was a secret training ground for the Uchiha clan. And they were just that.

Rumors.

There was nothing there to find other then an old log cabin, out-house, and maybe an old tree stump with a few good hits on it. Nothing there was special to train the mind, or sharpen the senses of the ninja. It was just another small release from his tormented mind. The only thing that could be found up there in the way of something to train with was the silence. Complete, and utter isolation from the rest of humanity. Perfect for the concentration needed to work on developing skills.

He was half way across the park when he turned around. Naruto sat leaning against the old tree eyes closed. The raven-haired youth was tempted to leave him there, but they had a mission to complete. 'Even if it is only picking up garbage.'

"Comin' dope?" he called. The blond blinked and looked at him a moment before standing and walking over to join them.

*~*~**~*~*~*~**~ *~*

"Ahh! That was good!" exclaimed Naruto after he cleaned off his third bowl of ramen.

"How can you tell? None of it was in your mouth long enough to taste it." Sakura mumbled as she took another bit of hers. Team seven had spent the rest of the day in different areas of town picking up trash. All three were tired and smelly. Kakashi had treated them to ramen once the mission had been completed.

Naruto watched his sensei out of the corner of his eye for a moment before turning back to his empty dish. 'Na, I should be good tonight.' he thought.

The sky outside was darkening rapidly as the four exited the ramen bar and started off for home. Kakashi vanished somewhere along the way as they walked. Sakura waved goodbye to them as she entered her house leaving the two young Shinobi to walk alone, in the dark.

'The stars sure are bright tonight.' the blond thought to himself. The black canvas of the sky appeared as if someone had taken an over absorbed paint brush and flung it at the darkness. Splattering the shimmering lights in a streak across the night.

He paused a moment as he was overwhelmed by a yawn. 'God I'm so damn tired!' he rubbed his eyes, whipping away the tears that formed as he watched the colored lights dance on the inside of his eyelids, like a melted firework display on mute.

Sasuke turned his head and watched his teammate yawn and wipe the tired tears from his eyes. He was then suddenly stuck himself with the need to yawn, but suppressed it. 'Why is that so damn contagious?!'

"Hey Dumb-shit." the comment rolled of his tongue before he could pause to think about it. 'I must be been more tired then I thought.'

"What piss-hole?" Naruto answered with another lazy yawn.

"Something wrong with you?"

"Nothing I can't handle."

They continued walking till they got the fork in the road, leading each to their homes, on opposite sides of the village. Each going their own way, without a word or a glance.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

'Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleeeeeeeeep...' Naruto's mind was set on one thing. Well two things really. His bed, and his pillow. Too tired to even think about a shower he just pulled his clothes off, pulled his fuzzy pj's on and crawled under the sheets and was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

*~*~**~*~*

Step, step, step, step, turn.

step, step, step, step, turn...

And so on, and so on, and so on.....

End Ch9

Cookie bits