"Tides" snippet
May. 12th, 2005 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI don't really like posting pieces before I finish the chapter and know how it all goes, but I rather like this bit. So:
---------------------------------------------
Tides 06
---------------------------------------------
Naruto, who seems to have worked a ridiculous number of odd jobs to finance his trip and Jiraiya-san's perversions, takes charge of the rebuilding project.
Sakura doesn't protest. She's learned not to doubt him when he says he can do something -- it's easier now that he doesn't boast so much, of course, but she reminds herself over and over again that even three years ago, he always came through when it counted. She refuses to judge him by outward appearances anymore. That didn't help any of them.
So she puts Tsunade-sensei's lessons to good use and does most of the heavy labor -- digging out rotted foundations, uprooting scraggly trees and bushes trying to grow through fallen ceilings, and hauling stone and lumber to places Naruto marks out. It's hard work, she's sweating like a pig, her feet are caked with mud and unmentionable bits of fungus, and her hair straggles across her face like limp seaweed, but Sakura doesn't really care. There's something immensely satisfying in being the strongest one for a change.
Sasuke doesn't complain either, oddly enough, and only makes one token protest at taking Naruto's orders. Sakura suspects he'd be a lot harder to convince if they were organizing a fight rather than a construction job, but it probably helps that he almost had no idea which end of a hammer is which before Naruto demonstrated things. He's still having trouble with his saw -- keeps getting the teeth stuck in the wood as he pushes too hard or at a bad angle -- and his muttered cursing rises and falls in a quiet rhythm whenever she passes by him.
He's cute when he's pretending not to be out of his element, and careful concentration looks a lot better on his face than a scowl. What would it be like to have him concentrate on her?
Sakura squashes that thought.
"Hey, Naruto?" she asks. "I'm done pulling up plants. Should I start mixing the mortar?"
Naruto leans down from his perch on a roofbeam, letting his tape measure roll back with a rattling snap. "Eh, might as well, if you've got the first row of stones level in the trench. Just don't mix too much -- we'll have to break for lunch in an hour." He grins. "Hey, it's Sasuke's turn to cook -- you think I can get him to make ramen?"
Sakura rolls her eyes. "What is it with you and ramen? And no, I don't think he'd listen to you."
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Go make him help you with the mortar instead. I'd rather have that wall done than a bunch of boards lying around when I can't use them yet." Naruto waves her off and pulls out the metal strip of his measure, leaning sideways to hook it through the hilt loop of a kunai stuck at the wall. Then he stands and walks along the beam, paying out the tape as he goes.
He's taken off his jacket, and Sakura can see the play of muscles in his legs and back, and the trained grace that lies underneath his careless walk.
She notices herself wondering what it would feel like to run her hands over his shoulders and butt, and squashes that thought too.
---------------------------------------------
More tomorow, maybe. This is going much faster than the previous chapter -- it's a lot easier for me to catch Sakura's inner monologue than to catch Naruto's.
---------------------------------------------
Tides 06
---------------------------------------------
Naruto, who seems to have worked a ridiculous number of odd jobs to finance his trip and Jiraiya-san's perversions, takes charge of the rebuilding project.
Sakura doesn't protest. She's learned not to doubt him when he says he can do something -- it's easier now that he doesn't boast so much, of course, but she reminds herself over and over again that even three years ago, he always came through when it counted. She refuses to judge him by outward appearances anymore. That didn't help any of them.
So she puts Tsunade-sensei's lessons to good use and does most of the heavy labor -- digging out rotted foundations, uprooting scraggly trees and bushes trying to grow through fallen ceilings, and hauling stone and lumber to places Naruto marks out. It's hard work, she's sweating like a pig, her feet are caked with mud and unmentionable bits of fungus, and her hair straggles across her face like limp seaweed, but Sakura doesn't really care. There's something immensely satisfying in being the strongest one for a change.
Sasuke doesn't complain either, oddly enough, and only makes one token protest at taking Naruto's orders. Sakura suspects he'd be a lot harder to convince if they were organizing a fight rather than a construction job, but it probably helps that he almost had no idea which end of a hammer is which before Naruto demonstrated things. He's still having trouble with his saw -- keeps getting the teeth stuck in the wood as he pushes too hard or at a bad angle -- and his muttered cursing rises and falls in a quiet rhythm whenever she passes by him.
He's cute when he's pretending not to be out of his element, and careful concentration looks a lot better on his face than a scowl. What would it be like to have him concentrate on her?
Sakura squashes that thought.
"Hey, Naruto?" she asks. "I'm done pulling up plants. Should I start mixing the mortar?"
Naruto leans down from his perch on a roofbeam, letting his tape measure roll back with a rattling snap. "Eh, might as well, if you've got the first row of stones level in the trench. Just don't mix too much -- we'll have to break for lunch in an hour." He grins. "Hey, it's Sasuke's turn to cook -- you think I can get him to make ramen?"
Sakura rolls her eyes. "What is it with you and ramen? And no, I don't think he'd listen to you."
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Go make him help you with the mortar instead. I'd rather have that wall done than a bunch of boards lying around when I can't use them yet." Naruto waves her off and pulls out the metal strip of his measure, leaning sideways to hook it through the hilt loop of a kunai stuck at the wall. Then he stands and walks along the beam, paying out the tape as he goes.
He's taken off his jacket, and Sakura can see the play of muscles in his legs and back, and the trained grace that lies underneath his careless walk.
She notices herself wondering what it would feel like to run her hands over his shoulders and butt, and squashes that thought too.
---------------------------------------------
More tomorow, maybe. This is going much faster than the previous chapter -- it's a lot easier for me to catch Sakura's inner monologue than to catch Naruto's.
