He Was A Friend: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Sasuke slammed the book shut and shoved it behind his back.  “Where did I get what, Pakkun-chan?” Sasuke asked innocently.  “I don’t have anything.”

Pakkun stuck his nose behind Sasuke’s back and tried to get the book.  Sasuke knew that he would get in trouble if Pakkun took the book back to Kakashi so he snatched it up and ran out of the room, or at least he tried.  He was halfway into a sprint as he approached the doorway to the kitchen and Sakura, coming towards the living room with a bowl of ice cream and cookies, wasn’t going half as fast.  Sasuke didn’t see her until it was too late and ran straight into her.  

The bowl of ice cream went airborne and landed on the floor several feet away.  Sasuke and Sakura tumbled to a heap on the floor and Pakkun hurried over to snatch the book from a temporarily stunned Sasuke’s hand.  “No!  Pakkun-chan, don’t!” Sasuke cried.  He climbed up off the floor, shoving Sakura off him, and took off after the small dog.  Sakura sat in shock for several moments before it registered that the little dog needed her help.

“Sahra! Sahra!  Elp ne!” Pakkun tried to say around the book in his mouth.  “Ach, Sahra!”

Sakura couldn’t decipher what the dog was trying to say but quickly figured it out as the dog jumped into the air and chucked the book at her.  She caught it, dog slobber and all, and immediately hurried for the door.  She barely made it 7 feet when something tackled her to the ground.  She twisted around and found Sasuke clinging to her waist.  “Give me my book back Sakura-chan.  I want my book back.” He whimpered, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

Sakura finally took a moment to look at the book’s cover and shrieked loud enough to wake the dead.  This was most definitely not Sasuke’s book.  It was “Come, Come Paradise:  Vol. 1”, one of Kakashi’s favorites and certainly not something that a five-year-old should have, ever.  “Pakkun!  Pakkun!  Hurry!” She tossed the book to the dog and then grabbed a hold of Sasuke.  “Take it back to Kakashi-sensei, quick!  I’ve got Sasuke!”

Sasuke tried to climb to his feet and go after the dog, but Sakura held his wrist tightly.  With an annoyed glance at the pink-haired girl beneath him, he jerked his hand away.  “Let go!” He cried.  He started to run away from her.

Sakura smirked and reached out to grab his foot.  “Oh, no you don’t.” She laughed.  Sasuke tumbled face first onto the ground and to ensure that he wouldn’t get away from her again, Sakura sat on his back until Pakkun was long gone.  Sasuke finally gave up struggling when he realized the same thing and sat on the floor pouting.

“Sakura-chan,” Said Sakura’s mother as she walked into the room with a plate of fresh cookies.  “I don’t think your sensei meant for you to take babysitting so…literally.”

Sakura blushed and finally let Sasuke up.  She bowed to her mother, who promptly left, and quickly led Sasuke to the couch and the cookies.  The boy glared at her for a few moments, a large pout plastered on his face, before finally deciding that the cookies were a better use of his time.  He ate one entire cookie and came to the conclusion that he was thirsty.  “I want something to drink.” He informed her.  “I’m thirsty.”  

“Alright, I’ll go get you something.” She told him sweetly.  She couldn’t stand it when he was mad at her, whether he was mentally five or not.  “Now you be a good boy and stay here, ok?”

Sasuke nodded and reached for another cookie.  As soon as Sakura left the room however, he escaped out the front door.  He made it barely a block down the street when Sakura burst out of the house behind him.  “Sasuke!” She screamed.  “Uchiha Sasuke, get your butt back here this instant!”

Sasuke took off at a sprint in the opposite direction.  Sakura chased him from street to street, never tiring, and Sasuke knew he had to get away from her somehow.  He hurried around a corner and leapt onto the roof of the first building she saw.  Sakura ran past as he watched and he slumped against the house’s second story window in relief.  Unfortunately the window was open and instead of leaning on the glass, he fell into a room.  

The thud he made as he landed alerted the room’s only occupant to his presence.  He was just beginning to crawl to his feet, whimpering at the pain from the fall, when a girl’s high-pitched scream filled the air.  Sasuke looked up just in time to see an angry blonde girl’s hand connect with his face.  “You pervert!  Who are you and what are you doing spying on me?” The girl cried.  

She raised her hand to strike him again when a woman’s voice called from downstairs.  “Is everything all right, Ino?  What’s going on?”

“Nothing I can’t handle, Mom!” Ino called.  “Now, where was I…?”

She turned back towards Sasuke, only to discover that he was gone.  While she had been distracted with her mother’s worried call, Sasuke had slipped back out the window and fled towards the forest.  He knew that Sakura would still be out looking for him and he most certainly didn’t want to be found.  Remembering that Naruto said he was going to go train, Sasuke figured the forest would be the best place to start looking for him.

Using the trick that his Sharingan had picked up from the sand siblings, Sasuke leapt into the trees.  He found Naruto in a clearing several hundred feet just inside the tree-line, practicing a summon jutsu of some sort.  The blonde boy would place his hand on the ground, smoke would explode upwards, and when the smoke cleared a frog would be in that place.  As Sasuke watched, Naruto summoned several different sized frogs and then sent them away again before summoning some more.  

Sasuke was highly amused.  He was completely prepared to rush out into the clearing to have Naruto teach him that jutsu when a familiar pink-haired kunoichi’s voice split the air.  “NARUTO!” Sakura screamed.  “Naruto!  Sasuke ran off on me!”

“Nani?!” Naruto cried, the last of his frogs disappearing in a puff of smoke.  “You lost him?”

“This is all you’re fault, baka!” Sakura yelled, entirely ready to beat Naruto to a pulp.  “If you would have come by to help me watch him like Kakashi-sensei said you were going to, I wouldn’t have lost him!”

Sasuke cringed.  This pink-haired monster was really going to hurt Naruto.  He needed to do something.  Trying to formulate a plan in his head he stood and balanced on the tree branch.  One of his feet slipped and before he could catch himself, he fell over 10 feet to the hard ground below.  Sakura and Naruto heard him fall.  Sakura immediately dropped Naruto and ran to the bushes where Sasuke had landed.  Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and followed.