Believe in the Rain

DISCLAIMER: We're required to have disclaimers now. I do not own Naruto, Naruto merchandise, or any of the characters.

CHAP. 1, PART ONE

Believe in the Rain

Everyone had their own place to train.


This was the Konohagakure genin way. As simple as that. Each ninja had his own place to call his private 'training grounds', and there was an unspoken law that said -- 'if this area is used by a fellow ninja school graduate, you may not use it yourself'.

Take for example Rock Lee.

The taijutsu expert had selected a particularly barren area on the edges of Konoha forest and training ground forty-four. It was his domain. He marked his territory in such a way: thick, gnarled tree trunks were torn up from the ground and lay like dying old lumps in heaps. Too heavy for any normal human to even think about hefting. (Then again, no one pretended the pudding-bowl-haircut-boy was quite normal.)


Another example would be Neji -- the Hyuuga boy. The young man seemed to have fixed his pearlescent gaze on a particularly serene area with a little river and waterfall. Very zen, very appropriate. The only person allowed in that training area was, oddly, Naruto -- and sometimes Tenten, who clearly had a crush on Neji. Too bad Neji, according to the local gossip, already liked someone.

Anyways...


Everybody had their own training ground -- an area they could call their own to practice at. Some areas were more frequently used than others (Shikamaru's chosen grassy field was mainly a place for him to take a snooze, not to 'train'). Some were visited so often that little hard dirt tracks eventually had been stamped out leading up to them.


Naruto's special place was visited often, but the blonde was cleverer than he let on. In an attempt to prevent people from discovering his precious place, he always took a new route to the clifftop hideaway.


This particular afternoon, as he sat under a shady overhang in the second Hokage's left nostril, he wasn't building up body strength by rock-climbing. He wasn't practicing weapon-arts. He wasn't even really meditating, so much as he was mulling over his relationships with his fellow ninja.


The remains of his lunch hung in a bag out of the Hokage's nose like some small booger. He had packed a picnic.

A storm was coming.


Kiba's family's dogs had known it, and so had Naruto. Their keen senses of smell had captured the moisture in the air. Naruto loved to watch storms, and the second Hokage's left nostril was the perfect place to do it.


The storm was coming up from the south, moving slowly. It looked like a huge blue-gray shower curtain being drawn along by the hand of All-that-is, or God, or whoever the hell ran the world. Naruto could just barely see through it. Just enough to make out the silhouettes of mountains on the other side. From time to time, jumpy white ribbons of lightning snapped between those mountaintops and the roiling clouds.

A fresh zephyr whispered up behind the blonde, ruffling his hair and blowing a stinging wetness into his eyes.


The whole Konoha valley lay spread out before him. The village, a sprinkling of houses circled with a thick log wall, was miniature and perfect in its realism; Naruto could see the small specks that were people weaving in between the larger specks (homes) like ants through an ant hill. He was reminded of a time, once, when he had been at practice.


Kakashi had told him to go collect the kunai knives that had missed the straw target. One of them had landed far off. When Naruto went to collect it, he found it was buried to the hilt in a swarming nest of red ants. Konoha was the kunai, and the citizens were those ants.


Whenever he sat up on his training ground, Naruto felt a wonderfully protective feeling creep slowly across his heart, like an big warm hand encircling his chest. His village. He would protect it and its people with his life, despite the abuse he'd suffered at their unknowingly cruel hands. When he became Hokage --


When he became Hokage. A grin as bright as the sun peeking through some of the black clouds in the distance pasted itself onto Naruto's face.


Meanwhile, Sasuke watched. Earlier that day, after training, he had noticed the blonde hanging back -- even after Kakashi dismissed them. (This was unusual, because the tanned boy was usually the first to spring off, squealing something about 'miso ramen!') Having nothing particularly better to do, and giving in to the urge to sate his piqued curiosity, he had followed the blonde as he wove his way up the side of the mountain, as agile as some goat.


It seemed appropriate, somehow, that Naruto settled in the Hokage's nostril. He really was a little snot sometimes. Sasuke smirked.


The blonde still hadn't noticed him, and Sasuke had been lounging about in the Hokage's right nostril for the past thirty minutes. He even went out of his way to kick his leg out once or twice, far enough that the blonde should have been able to see his toes wiggling around even on the other side of the rocky nose.


Naruto, you're so... slow. Sasuke found this ...cute.


Naturally, he was surprised when the blonde's voice suddenly came into the crisp air.


"Don't you love the rain, Sasuke?"


Sasuke, quickly recovering from his surprise, shrugged. It then occured to him Naruto couldn't see his response. Sighing, he sat up and hooked his arm around a lump of stone, using it to swing out dangerously over the massive drop into the village and into the left nostril.

Naruto grunted and made room as Sasuke settled down with a serpentine grace.


"Dobe." Sasuke replied, at a loss as to what to say. Saying 'yes' would be cheesy, like they were on some weird romantic date, and saying 'no' would annoy Naruto.


Then again, saying 'dobe' probably annoyed the blonde more than telling him 'no' would have.


For once, Naruto was silent.


The rain came rushing up to coat the village with a suddenness that made Sasuke blink rapidly in an attempt to confirm what his eyes told him. One minute it was hazy and clear, the next, raining clear, icy missiles.


Good thing the second Hokage had a big schnazz.


"Sasuke?" came the blonde's soft voice.


"Mm?" the raven-hair replied, glancing casually over at his friend and finding himself, once more, alarmed at how like the rain the blonde was -- one minute, far away, the next, upon them.

He was thunderstruck by Naruto in the flickering light of the storm. The blonde said something, but all Sasuke saw was the beautiful curve of his cupid's bow lips as he spoke.


Lightning cast irregular shadows onto the beautifully sun-bronzed skin, smooth and unblemished. Each raindrop mirrored light into tiny sparkling fireflies of gold and white that hovered and danced around each lock of his golden hair, giving him a faint halo of pure, magnificent beauty -- but not in the sense that a male model was beautiful. No, it was more how one would look at a flower, and comment on its loveliness. A European model might only appeal to Europeans, but a flower appeals to all people.


Such was Naruto.


A gleaming ray of light in the darkness that was life, those lucky enough to have met him drinking him in like an aphrodisiac for happiness and joy. He represented everything most people were not; at least, outwardly. Perhaps the reason why everyone loved him was because he had that same pain within him that most weren't afraid to keep on their sleeves, always hoping for sympathy.


Not Naruto. His strength, his willpower, was uncommonly good.


"Yes." said Sasuke.


He was vaguely aware that the blonde had asked him some sort of question a moment before, and his mouth opened and shut before he could stop it. Oh, shoot -- what was it the blonde had said?


Naruto smiled.


The clouds seemed to clear up slightly at that moment, leaving the combined silhouette of two young men to float in a giant shadow above Naruto's village.

Unbeknownst to Sasuke, Naruto's question had been, "Do I have what it takes to become Hokage, Sasuke? Do you believe in me?"


[This is the beginning of a longer series, 'cause I happened to rather like how this started. Future sex scenes between Naruto and Sasuke, Naruto and Neji, and possibly Naruto and Gaara -- I know, I know. Naruto seems like a slut, but I promise, he ain't. ^^ I just think our Kyuubi needs some attention. I mean, c'mon, he's so neglected half of the time! Altogether, though, this is meant to be Sas/Naru. Just... Sasuke's gotta fight for him. x)

I don't own Naruto, by the way.]