[Meme] Prompt!fic time again :-)

[edenfalling]

I had today off work after all, and I am bored. None of my current writing projects are really calling to me, so... please tell me what to write!

The first six people to give me a fanfic prompt (on LJ and/or DW) will get a ficlet of at least 100 words. :-D

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Fill List:

1. Last Call for cherokee1: 2,250 words, Naruto AU. Sakura and Naruto discuss their futures during their last summer as camp counselors. The sociopolitical details of the AU ended up dominating the fic, despite my occasional attempts to remember the camp setting. Oops. :-/

2. Implications, aka Jim Kirk Loves His Crew for jjhunter: 575 words, Star Trek: AOS. What it says on the tin. (But not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter! :-p )

3. What Is Essential for askerian: 3,200 words, Naruto AU. Sakura went to summer camp to be with her best friend Ino. Somehow over the next two years, she ended up best friends with two jerks instead. Another installment of the summer-camp-and-politics AU.

4. Narutostuck: The Spider and the Flies for runespoor: 2,400 words, Homestuck/Naruto fusion. The eastern countries have reached out to the new government of the Land of Space, inviting the village of Hidden Time to send participants to the upcoming chuunin exam in Konoha. Vriska Serket is very interested in whether her country's new leaders will accept, and ropes her teammates into helping her spy on their meeting.

5. After Frost for hungrytiger11: 4,850 words, Naruto AU. In the shadow of a vote over a bilateral free trade agreement with Thunder Country, Hyuuga Hinata moves on. Warnings for depression, learned helplessness, severely dysfunctional families, and a traumatic backstory involving kidnapping, long-term captivity, and murder. Another installment of the summer-camp-and-politics AU.

6. Trollstuck for explodingfrogs: WIP, Homestuck AU. Wherein the four beta!kids are and always were trolls on Alternia, Sgrub/Sburb does not exist, and Troll Jade Harley is on a quest to keep her friend Aradia from dying. Things will almost certainly get more complicated, but that's a good place to start. (Collaborative audience participation fic! Come play with me!)

Comments

[edenfalling]

I am typing this in comment boxes as fast as I can make it up. Let's see how this works!

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"Hey, Sakura-chan, looking good!"

Sakura turned slightly in her folding lawnchair at the end of the dock to smile at Naruto. "Hey yourself. Aren't you meant to be supervising arts and crafts this afternoon?"

Her best friend shrugged and dropped down to sit on the dockboards beside her, lounging back on his elbows. "Eh, you know how it goes. Glue fights, glitter and feathers everywhere, and suddenly it's time for the kids to have fun cleaning the showers instead of making tacky picture frames for their 'special memory photos' or whatever. I figured Iruka-sensei didn't need me around reminding him I'm the one who let the fight get started. Much more fun to watch girls in bikinis than get yelled at."

"They're fifteen, you pervert," Sakura said, swatting him affectionately. "We're going into our last year of college. Ogle someone your own age."

Naruto rubbed his damp blond hair with a falsely injured expression. "Well, if you'd wear a two-piece, I wouldn't have to rely on silly fangirls with obnoxious crushes. Take one for the team, Sakura-chan! You used to wear bikinis for Sasuke. Why not wear one for me?"

"Because I'm not a silly fangirl with an obnoxious crush anymore," Sakura said dryly. "Bikinis are useless for real swimming, which is what I might have to do as a lifeguard. Also, I am not an object placed on this earth solely for men to judge on my sex appeal. You don't see me asking you to wear a thong-style Speedo, do you?"

"Aw, but I would for you, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said. He rolled sideways into the lake to avoid Sakura's retaliation and surfaced with a brilliant smile, neatly treading water despite his laughter. Water sluiced down his tanned skin and highlighted the faint, pinkish scars on his face and shoulders. Sakura flicked at him with her towel, and fell easily into a mock game of tug-of-war when he seized the far end.

"See, there's the old Sakura! I was starting to wonder if you remembered how to smile. You're way too serious this summer," Naruto said after a minute, tossing his end of the towel back up onto the dock and swimming toward the ladder. "What's eating you?"

Sakura looked down at the towel she was folding in her lap. "Oh, things. I guess it's just hitting me that next year we'll all be out in the real world, like actual adults. Sink or swim. Sasuke will be going to war. You're going to jump headfirst into the shark tank -- don't grin at me like that, it's a totally valid description of politics! And I'm... I'll do something."

Naruto sat cross-legged at her feet and rested his head on the rim of her chair seat between her knees. "You're not going to med school, then? What happened to 'I'm going to be the best doctor ever, and invent new medicines and surgeries, and end up Surgeon General and rearrange all the hospitals so nobody falls through the cracks and also inspire a thousand people to join Tsunade-hime's Red Cross agency while I'm at it!" I mean, yeah, that's a lot for one person, but you can do it! You're awesome like that."

Sakura sighed. "Yes, well. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but considering how many government secrets you know just by breathing, I doubt it matters. I got a recruitment offer from ANBU. I'm thinking of saying yes."

Naruto tipped his head back to stare at her upside-down. "Whoa. Haruno Sakura, secret agent of Fire Country. Super-spy extraordinaire. You know, I can see it."

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"Really? Because I can't," Sakura admitted.

Naruto flapped his hands, his shoulders jostling against her shins. "Well, yeah! You're smart, you're sneaky when you need to be, you never give up, you're good at meeting new people and making them like you without having to fight them, you don't look like you're dangerous even though you totally are... Perfect spy."

Sakura hummed noncommittally and scanned the lake, making sure the campers weren't in trouble. The canoe flotilla was busily negotiating today's obstacle course, the diving lesson on the mid-lake platform was proceeding as planned, and the younger kids splashing about in the roped-off area by the artificial beach were noisily engaged in some kind of volleyball-water polo hybrid. Situal normal, everything fine.

"The thing I don't get is why you'd want to join ANBU," Naruto added, looking serious again. "I know you don't like the government much, and you've always been anti-war. You and Sasuke argued about that forever. So why jump into everything you hate?"

Sakura carded her fingers through her friend's messy, water-spiked hair as she tried to formulate her answer. "I don't like fighting and I don't like how the clans dominate the government, but Fire Country is my home and I want to protect our people just as much as you and Sasuke do. I just never figured there was any way for me to do that directly, and also I do honestly like the idea of being a doctor. But if I can help..."

Naruto practically purred under her touch. "Yeah, yeah, if you can help...?"

"Then don't I have an obligation to do whatever I can?"

Naruto caught her hands, stilling her fingers. "Bullshit," he said, abruptly turning to face her. "Nobody's required to do anything. This isn't a police state, no matter what laws that asshole Danzo wants to pass if he ever gets elected."

"Yeah, well maybe I want to do something! Maybe I want to make sure things like what happened to Sasuke never happen to anyone else!" Sakura said. "You know it's not healthy for him to be in the army, but you never said one damn thing to stop him from applying to the Academy. He's going to get himself killed before we're thirty, and even if he lives, I'm afraid he's going to end up like Danzo and too many other retired soldiers. Especially on top of everything else! I mean, you know he's not stable. How could he be? If your family had been killed in a terrorist attack--"

She stopped, swallowed her words.

Naruto watched her silently, his hands gentle around hers.

"I'm sorry. That was horribly insensitive of me. I can't believe I forgot," Sakura said.

She really couldn't believe it -- after all, the footage of Naruto's parents' death was only replayed on every national holiday and every other time television commentors talked about the origins of the current cold war with Water, Thunder, and Earth Countries. It was etched into everyone's memory, a national moment of shame and catharsis. Namikaze Minato, the first commoner elected as prime minister, standing on a platform at a rally, campaigning to rouse public support for the free trade agreement he'd brokered with Wind Country. A grenade arching through the air. The prime minister shouting for people to run, throwing himself on the weapon. His wife turning to shield the infant son in her arms. The explosion. The bloody ruin emerging from the smoke and flames. The fearful wail of an orphaned child.

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"You know, my dad wasn't even that popular until after he was dead," Naruto said.

Sakura blinked at the non sequitur.

"Everybody always says stuff like, 'Oh, he was such a brave man,' 'Oh, I bet Fire Country would be so rich and strong if he were still around' 'Oh, he and your mother were such a romantic couple.' All kinds of junk. But you know, he probably would've lost the vote on the trade pact, and people were pissed off that a no-name, no-clan guy married to a foreign shaman somehow got the support of the Senju clan and beat six actual nobles in the elections," Naruto continued. "Nobody ever found the assassins, which means they had support in high places, which means it was our own people who wanted him dead."

Sakura twisted her hands to lace her fingers through Naruto's.

"So yeah, I know what you feel about wanting to tear down the government, and I know what Sasuke feels about wanting revenge on whoever killed his family. But I'm gonna do it right. We already made a start, getting Tsunade-hime to leave the Red Cross and run for prime minister last year, so Danzo couldn't just sweep in and say, 'Hey suckers, military dictatorship time!' I mean, why do you think I'm studying history and psychology and poly-sci? It's not because I like that shit. It's because someday I'm gonna run for office myself, and then we are going to clean this world up."

Sakura bent her head to their joined hands. "The crazy part is that I believe you," she told him. "But you can't do it alone."

"Well, duh. But by then I'll have Sasuke in charge of the army -- assuming he even still cares, the bastard -- and you... well, I thought I'd have you to run the health ministry or something, but if you're gonna be a spy, I guess I'll make you an ambassador or something big and diplomatic instead," Naruto said.

"Or your bodyguard," Sakura said. "We have a terrible record when it comes to prime ministers living to leave office and peacefully retire. I'd rather you not imitate your father that closely."

"Pffft, as if," Naruto said. He leaned against the other side of their joined hands, locking his eyes onto Sakura's. "So hey, if you want to be a spy, that's cool. If you decide not to, that's cool too. It's not like I'm ever going to stop being your best friend -- and Sasuke isn't either, no matter what he tries to tell himself about being Mister Tough and Stoic now that he knows how to shoot a gun. I'll beat him up if he tries."

"I went down to the Academy to visit him this spring, did I tell you?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, only a hundred times," Naruto said, faking annoyance. "You're totally still a silly fangirl with an obnoxious crush. I bet you went swimming and wore a bikini."

"No, we just bathed naked in a hot tub," Sakura said, with as straight a face as she could manage... which wasn't very. Naruto clearly didn't believe her for a second, judging by how quickly he broke into helpless snickers.

"Anyway, he was the same as always -- grumpy and snooty and telling me all my ideas were annoying but he'd go along with them because I was his guest -- but one of his classmates pulled me aside one morning and said now she knew why he'd stuck an icon of the Cherry Blossom Goddess into their communal shrine, but did I know how an Uchiha had ended up as a devotee of the Nine-Tailed Fox when the Fox and the Eternal Flame were supposed to be rivals?"

Naruto blinked and pulled back. "What, seriously?"

"Seriously," Sakura confirmed. "So yeah, maybe he won't answer your letters or your phone calls, but he remembers."

[edenfalling]

Naruto grinned. "Ha! I'll have to tell the Fox tonight when I give him his sake. That'll piss him off so bad, having an Uchiha as a follower even in name only. Hey, maybe I can send him south and make him fuck around with Sasuke's luck or something."

Sakura kicked his knee with her bare foot. "Don't you dare. Just because you have a big bad nature spirit tied to your family line doesn't give you the right to abuse the connection, any more than you have a right to abuse your father's name or your connections to the Senju."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but it's fun to daydream," Naruto said. "Anyway! The sun's just about hit the trees on the far side of the main complex, which means it's nearly five o'clock. Better whistle the campers in."

Sakura looked down at her wrist, checking the time against Naruto's estimate; he was, as usual, correct within five minutes. "How do you do that?" she asked, and then tuned out his babble about nature and looking underneath the underneath and his godfather's evil wilderness hiking trips. She lifted her whislte from the cord around her neck and blew three long, steady blasts.

Across the lake, the canoers turned and began paddling back to the landing site. The diving class splashed into the water one last time and began swimming for shore. The rugrats' ball game continued at full speed, though.

"Hey! Pack it in!" Sakura shouted. The kids continued to ignore her.

"Were we that annoying at their age?" Naruto wondered. "Do you even remember being that young?"

"You were the most annoying seven-year-old brat I have ever had the misfortune of meeting," Sakura assured him. "Now pretend you're a responsible leader and come help me herd these brats out of the lake. I might even wear a bikini tomorrow if you do."

"What, really?" Naruto said, scrambling to his feet with an eager expression. "Did you bring the green one with the string ties and the mesh patches? Because you totally rocked that outfit. Even Sasuke admitted it when we got back to our cabin. Do you promise you'll wear a bikini if I help out?"

"No," Sakura said, and shoved him the lake.

This might be her last summer at the camp, her last break before the troubles of the real world swallowed her alive. She might as well have some fun while she could. Sakura dove cleanly into the water beside Naruto and struck out toward the roped-off shallows, trusting her friend to follow.

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End of Story

[askerian]

*eees all over the place* ... the politics were AWESOME, I love this in-between AU. So fun. @__@ And I love how canny Naruto is, and his history! Shamaaaaan yay, and Sakura worrying between two futures, and even Sasuke, who was really present even if he wasn't there and D'AWWW his shrine SOCUTE. Naruto and Sakura's friendly bickering was a pretty good frame to show that this isn't the canon Konoha, but I loved that it isn't the USA with Konoha names either.

[edenfalling]

I have so many ideas about this AU, seriously. ALL THE IDEAS. ALL OF THEM.

Like Naruto's distant cousin on his mother's side who's First Citizen for life of Rain Country, which makes that an unofficial theocracy, and people talk meaningfully about that but Naruto's all, "Pffft, like I even know the guy. I think he sent me a birthday card, like, once and that was just 'cause he was making a point to his own people about family values and shit.

Or how Tsunade totally founded the Red Cross in this world, as a reaction to all the war deaths in her family.

Or how the summer camp they're at is actually pretty high security, because a lot of the kids who go there are from clan or otherwise privileged backgrounds. Sakura got in her first year because she was friends with Ino (who's low clan, but still clan) and Ino wanted to show off. Except then Sakura fell in with Naruto and Sasuke and got tangled in high politics almost despite herself.

Or Naruto and Sakura arguing one time about how he effectively has clan-born privileges even though he thinks of himself as a commoner. You know -- "Maybe your dad had to make his own way, but he was prime minister when he died. Even if you use your mom's name, people know you. You're practically Sarutobi-san's adopted grandson. Your godfather runs the air force. Your other godfather only owns the biggest media conglomerate in the country. I don't have any of that! My dad's an accountant and my mom does landscape design, and whatever I do with my life will be because of MYSELF!" -- that sort of thing. And then Naruto blows up at her because at least she has parents and okay, so he has opportunities she doesn't, but does she think it was fun growing up knowing that people out there want to kill him -- and tried, a bunch of times! -- just because of his name.

At which point Sasuke knocks their heads together and tells them to shut up, they're giving him a headache.

Or Naruto and Sasuke arguing about the Nine-Tailed Fox and the Eternal Flame, and the respective nuances those spirits bring to the concept of justice -- like, does it include mercy, or is mercy an inherently opposing concept. Tiny little points of difference like that. (Sakura, meanwhile, is all: "I will be over here worshipping a goddess who believes in life and healing, not in burning things to ashes, thank you very much." Though apparently healing does not preclude bashing people over the head to make them realize they have problems that need fixing. *grin*)

Or the time about a year from now when Sasuke's doing recon in Sound Country (where Fire Country and Water Country are fighting a proxy war) and runs across Orochimaru negotiating with an Akatsuki representative... who turns out to be Itachi, and he nearly flips out before his squad can jump on him and keep him from giving away their position. And he gets sent back home to report to ANBU about that, and goes AWOL while in Konoha and Naruto and Sakura have to track him down.

Or how Naruto, having studied history in college (among other things) thinks the best way to fix Fire Country is by simultaneously fixing all the other countries too and making them into a big confederation! Because democracy is awesome! And it's not like they're the only countries in the world, people, seriously -- they need to stop wasting time fighting each other and start spending money on stuff like trade and medicine and education and maybe not having so many people dying of poverty and malnutrition and totally preventable diseases. Hey, maybe then the terrorism problem will get better too, ever thought of that??? And he gives the gathered representatives of whatever passes for Fire Country's parliament/congress/assembly-thing a hard look while behind him Sakura cracks her knuckles and smiles, while Sasuke stands silently with folded arms and looks ominously military in his uniform.

You know. IDEAS. :-D

[askerian]

I have nothing to say but MASSIVE LOVE YES PLZ to every single one of these. *_* Choose any one you want! I can't.

[edenfalling]

Once again, typing directly into comment boxes, so you get this unfiltered and largely unedited. With luck, it will manage to make sense despite those obstacles!

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The first year Sakura went to Leaf Shadow Summer Camp, it was entirely because of Ino. Not because her parents couldn't afford the fees (landscape design paid fairly well, after all, at least when you lived in the capitol and half your client list was filled with various clan bigwigs trying to outdo each other in mansion upkeep and whatever), and not because of the security checks (see above re: clan client list -- the Haruno family had been investigated with a fine tooth comb a dozen times over by Sakura's seventh birthday), but because it simply would never have occurred to her mom and dad to throw their shy, beloved daughter into a horde of clan kids who'd probably spend the entire summer looking down on her.

Sending her off with her closest friend was a completely different proposition. And Ino did make an effort to include Sakura, but she was naturally outgoing and quickly gathered a clique of admirers which left Sakura -- too nervous and awkward to push forward and defend her place as best friend -- inevitably sidelined.

She started spending a lot of time around the arts and crafts center, and also the nature lectures and the gardens and the stables. Sakura was used to being alone, and at least at camp the other kids didn't tease and bully her the way her schoolmates used to. It wasn't the summer she'd imagined when Ino asked her to come, but it was still pretty cool.

Except for Uzumaki Naruto.

Sakura knew him on sight, of course. Everyone in Fire Country did. But she hadn't known until she met him at camp just how annoying he was. He never shut up, he never stopped moving, he never lowered his voice, he had a horrible sense of humor, and even worse, he decided he liked her. So she was the one he kept playing pranks on, and no matter how much she told on him to the counselors, or how hard she tried to hide in quiet places that he'd think were boring, she couldn't get him to stop. It was exactly like school before Ino.

Except maybe not.

Because when they were learning to canoe and Ino stood up and tipped herself and Sakura into the water and then started yelling about how awful her hair and her clothes looked, and why hadn't Sakura been more careful, and Sakura wished she could slip out of her life jacket and sink to the bottom of the lake, Naruto stood up in his own canoe and jumped into the water, accidentally kicking his partner overboard behind him. He surfaced, sputtering, and grinned like his mouth wanted to split his scarred face in half.

"Hey, hey, what are you mad about?" he shouted at Ino. "This is way more fun than stupid boats! Look, I'm a dolphin!" He spit a mouthful of water out through the gap where one of his front teeth was missing.

"Idiot!" Ino shrieked, dodging the arc of spit-tainted water. She thrashed toward him and forgot about Sakura.

So maybe Naruto wasn't all bad. Just mostly. And still the most annoying person in the world.

[askerian]

X33 Ahh, Kid!Sakura. I like how her relatively lower level of maturity comes through here, and Ino's as well. And I really like the details like the security checks on her family, because yay worldbuilding.

Though of course now i'm all "how did she get close to SASUKE???" because team seven foreverrrrr and I was sad that in the other fic he was absent. >_>;;

[edenfalling]

The fic continues below! Unfinished, though, alas. Stupid job, making me go to work when I'm in a groove.

[edenfalling]

The next year, Ino's invitation was less of a full-out assault plan -- more a casual, "Oh, hey, you're coming to camp again, right?" tossed off during lunch one day at school -- and Sakura's agreement was less immediate, but come the end of the semester, they headed off in Ino's big family car, passed easily through the security checkpoints, carted their luggage into their new cabin, and greeted the other girls they'd share a room with for the next two months.

Most of them were the same as last year. Most of the boys were the same too. The biggest change was Uchiha Sasuke.

Everybody in Fire Country knew him on sight now, just like Naruto. News about the terrorist attack on his clan's compound had been everywhere last autumn. But unlike Naruto, Sasuke wasn't annoying. He was quiet and kept to himself, and somehow that made everybody want to get close to him.

"He's so romantic," Ino sighed one night as Sakura brushed her long hair, fixing it up after a day of sweat and swimming. "Like a real tragic hero, you know? I want to be the one who makes him smile again!"

Sakura looked down at the brush in her hands, running smoothly through her friend's beautiful blonde hair. "I guess," she said.

She wanted to make Sasuke smile. It wasn't right for people to be as alone as he was trying to be. She knew what isolation felt like, and she didn't want anyone else to hurt that way. Even if he seemed to want the pain.

The thing was, Ino's attempts to get Sasuke's attention didn't work. She'd ask him to help with arts and crafts and he'd move to a different table and tell her to ask the supervising counselor. She'd try to hold his hand on a hike and he'd pull back and walk so fast she couldn't keep up and the counselors started yelling at them for getting too far ahead. She'd sit next to him at meals and talk and talk, and he'd just turn away and tune her out.

Nobody got any reaction out of Sasuke except avoidance.

Except Naruto.

Apparently he really was the most annoying person in the world. He could actually get Sasuke to explode -- and he did, to the point where they were forbidden to sit at the same table, and Sakura even heard they got reassigned to separate cabins.

Which made it very confusing when Iruka-san assigned them to the same canoe on their first river trip, with Sakura stuck between them.

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It wasn't much of a trip, as Naruto loudly informed everyone. "We're just going like a mile and having a stupid picnic and then we're not even paddling back or carrying our canoes over a portage or anything. That's nothing! I went on a real trip with Kakashi-jisan this spring down south and we had tents and everything and camped out for two whole nights and saw a bunch of giant bugs and an alligator. So there!"

He turned around to glare at Sasuke, who sat in the back of their canoe, steering.

"That sounds nice," Sakura said. "But, um, can you turn around and keep paddling? I'm afraid we'll hit the rocks."

"Pfft! Only if that stuck-up bastard steers us wrong," Naruto said. "I'm the best at canoes! And you're good, too, Sakura-chan," he added, turning again to smile at her.

"The rocks!" Sakura said, and Naruto faced forward just in time to stick his paddle out and prod them away from a large stone rising from the moving water. They were heading downstream to the picnic ground, where they would leave the canoes for a camp truck to collect while they hiked back.

"See, no problem!" Naruto said cheerfully. "You worry too much, Sakura-chan. Even if Sasuke keeps crashing us into the rocks."

"Idiot," Sasuke muttered behind her.

"Hey, you're the one who's supposed to be steering! And I'm not an idiot," Naruto said, turning around again.

"I have enough trouble making sure we don't tip when you keep turning around," Sasuke said. "Idiot."

Sakura jabbed her paddle to the right and fended off another rock. All the other canoes were well ahead of them now, paddling faster than the lazy flow of the broad, shallow river while she was stuck with two arguing boys. She already knew Naruto was dumb. She was starting to think maybe Sasuke was just as bad -- or at least Naruto was just that good at dragging people down to his level.

"I am not an idiot!" Naruto repeated, still facing backwards.

Sasuke switched his paddle to the other side of the canoe, deliberately aiming them toward another rock.

"The rock! The rock!" Sakura shouted, trying frantically to paddle them away. But she couldn't work against both the current and Sasuke, and Naruto was trying to crawl over her to reach Sasuke instead of doing anything to help, and the rock got closer and closer, and--

Naruto grabbed hold of Sasuke's life jacket just as they crashed and tipped into the water.

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(I have to go to work now; I will finish this when I get home.)

[askerian]

oh god I love this. Yes! More! The idiot bickering and how the shine has worn off a bit with the way she responds to Ino's invitation, and Naruto dragging Sasuke down to his level!

... they're going to capsize, aren't they.that or totally pass the camp and drift way farther down. XD

[edenfalling]

Luckily the body of the canoe shielded them from the rock, but Naruto and Sasuke were too busy trying to drown each other to grab hold of either the boat or their paddles. Sakura, caught between them, managed to hang onto her paddle like grim death, but the edge of the canoe slipped through her grasping fingers and drifted away down the river while the boys thrashed and kicked and generally tried to drown her, too.

She ducked underwater and pushed herself away, using the rock like the side of a swimming pool. She didn't get very far -- the paddle and her life jacket were a big drag -- but just enough to be out of the boys' reach. Sakura jammed the paddle down into the riverbed as an anchor and breathed for a minute.

The boys drifted slowly downstream, unable to keep any solid footing on the slippery rocks and mud. Eventually Sakura took pity on them.

But not too much pity. They'd shouted in her ears, knocked her into the water, and practically beat her up trying to get at each other. Now she was sure Sasuke was just as bad as Naruto.

Sakura hung onto her paddle and started to swim down the river toward the boys. They didn't notice when she passed them, too busy hitting and shouting and spitting out the water they kept splashing in each other's faces. Sakura found a shallow spot, set her feet, raised her paddle over her head, and waited for them to drift into range.

Then she brought the paddle down on their interlocked arms.

"You're BOTH idiots!" she yelled. "Look what you did! We lost our canoe, we're soaking wet, we're going to miss lunch, Iruka-san's going to be so mad, everyone will laugh, and it's all your fault. BOTH of you! I HATE you!"

She swung the paddle again, slamming it down on the shoulder of Sasuke's life jacket. "Everybody thinks you're so cool, but you're just a jerk!" she shouted at him. "And you're a jerk too!" she added, turning to swing the paddle sideways into Naruto's stomach. "Jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk, asshole!"

Sakura raised the paddle again, but Sasuke lunged forward and tackled her around her waist, knocking her back into the water. She lost her grip, and the paddle floated away after their lost canoe.

When she surfaced, sputtering, the first thing she heard over the sound of water was Naruto's laughter. Sakura closed her eyes as tight as she could, not wanting to see the expression on Sasuke's face.

"Oh gods, oh spirits, that was awesome. That was the best thing ever! You rock, Sakura-chan!"

"She hit you too, idiot," Sasuke snapped.

"Like I care! Seriously, best thing ever. Didn't I tell you she was awesome?"

"She's friends with Ino," Sasuke said, as if that was a horrible crime.

"Pffft, whatever. If you actually talked to people sometimes, I bet the girls wouldn't push at you so hard. But oh right, I forgot, you're the only person who ever had anything bad happen in his life and you can never smile again. Dumbass."

A hand gripped Sakura's left shoulder, helping steady her on the uneven riverbed. Another hand gripped her right arm, offering counterbalance.

Maybe the world wouldn't end if she opened her eyes.

Sakura raked her sodden hair from her face and glared at the two boys holding on to her. Naruto grinned like they were lifelong friends and she'd given him the best birthday present ever -- which was dumb, and stupid, and also crazy, but also really hard to resist smiling back. And Sasuke...

Sasuke was smiling too. Just a little, like his face was rusty and he didn't quite remember how it was supposed to move, but definitely smiling.

[edenfalling]

"You're smiling," Sakura said, her hand reaching instinctively toward him.

Immediately Sasuke's face snapped back into a scowl. "You're hallucinating," he said.

"Hey! Didn't I tell you back at camp not to insult Sakura-chan?" Naruto said, swinging toward him.

Oh for the love of spring, they were going to start fighting again. Sakura lifted her hands and smacked them both across the backs of their heads. "Shut up. Both of you! I don't care what you do at camp, but right now we need to get over to the shore and start walking toward the picnic ground before Iruka-san sees our canoe float past and comes and finds us standing in the middle of the river yelling at each other like a bunch of morons."

The boys stared at her.

Fine. Whatever. Sakura officially Did Not Care anymore. "Or you can keep fighting like grumpy babies. Because you are babies! I'm going to go find Iruka-san and the others. I want a towel and I want lunch."

She started slogging toward the shore. It was hard work -- the water was always at least up to her waist, and sometimes she stepped into a pothole and it came up to her shoulders or all the way over her head. The rocks and mud were slimy and kept shifting under her feet. And the river pushed at her, trying to shove her downstream. The summer sun overhead was warm, but the water itself was chilly and growing colder by the second, now that she wasn't too angry to notice the temperature.

The boys argued for what felt like forever until they finally started splashing after her. Sakura refused to turn and look at them. They were a pair of dumbass jerks, and she didn't care if they fell or drowned or got eaten by an alligator.

The worst part was that she knew she couldn't tell anyone. Ino wouldn't believe that Sasuke was just as bad as Naruto, and the only girl who didn't have a crush on Sasuke was Hyuuga Hinata, who had a crush on Naruto and wouldn't listen to anything bad about him. Iruka-san was a good counselor and would probably believe her, but he thought everyone in the world was a good person at heart and would probably give her a lecture on forgiveness and stuff instead of letting her yell like she wanted to.

"Why is this stupid river so wide?" she yelled, tipping her head back to shout at the sky.

"I don't know," Naruto shouted from behind her. "Hey, are we even heading for the right shore? Which side is the picnic ground on anyway?"

"The left shore," Sasuke said.

Sakura stopped dead in the water, barely two meters away from the right edge of the river. Slowly, she turned around. Her hands clenched into fists.

The boys stayed just a little bit ahead of her all the way back across the river and down the banks to the picnic ground, where they crashed through the trees just in time to interrupt Iruka-san from setting out to find them.

---------------

(Not the end, just a scene break!)

[edenfalling]

The next morning Sakura got up early and went to breakfast without Ino. Nobody had ended up laughing at her yesterday, but she still felt raw and grumpy and didn't want to listen to Ino praise Sasuke while running down Naruto. She took a container of fruit yogurt from the refrigerator in the dining hall and sat at the back corner table with one of the books she'd brought for rainy days. It was the newest in a series and her mom had bought it in hardcover as a special summer present.

It seemed like she'd barely started reading before two bodies thumped down across the table from her.

Sakura glanced up, startled, to see Naruto and Sasuke sitting next to each other, both determinedly ignoring each other's presence.

"Hey, what're you reading?" Naruto asked, talking through a mouthful of cereal. "Kakashi-jisan and Jiraiya-jiisan keep telling me I need to read more, but then they won't let me read their books and all the ones in the Old Man's house are about politics and stuff like that."

"The old man?" Sakura asked.

Naruto shrugged. "You know, Sarutobi-san."

Right. Naruto was the son of Namikaze-san, the previous prime minister, and would naturally know his father's mentor. But somehow the idea of the annoying jerk she knew from camp running around in the prime minister's mansion refused to make sense, even though she'd seen him there on television sometimes during national holidays.

"My cousin Mariko was reading that last year," Sasuke said, looking down at his plate as if talking to his salad. "It's girly trash -- a whole series about a princess in disguise and magical horses and rainbow fairies and idiotic things like that. They solve all their problems with the power of friendship instead of fighting. It's disgusting."

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with friendship!" Naruto said, waving his spoon in Sasuke's face. "If more people tried to be friends instead of being jerks, the world would be a lot better place. I bet if a magical rainbow fairy came here right now, she'd have to cast a spell on you because you're an enemy of happiness!"

"I'd like to see a magical rainbow fairy deal with real problems, like war and terrorists and people dying," Sasuke snapped, glaring at Naruto like he wished he could set people on fire with his eyes.

Sakura's hand tightened on the spine of her book. Why were they here? Why couldn't they leave her in peace?

"If you don't make friends with people, they'll just keep on fighting and hurting you forever!" Naruto said. "That's what my dad said, and he was right. We made peace with Wind Country, and now all the people who had to run away from the borderlands have gone home and--"

"I won't make friends with the bastards who killed my parents!" Sasuke shouted, and lunged for Naruto.

Sakura hit them both with her book.

"Shut up! Shut up or go away and leave me alone! I don't care about your parents, I don't care about the war, I don't care about any of it! Just shut up and let me eat breakfast!"

She expected them to leave, but instead they just rubbed their heads and settled down to eat, occasionally shooting evil glances toward each other. After a while, Naruto started talking about the day's planned activity -- a giant, camp-wide scavenger hunt -- and Sasuke joined in without even calling him names.

Iruka-san assigned the three of them as a team. Somehow, Sakura wasn't surprised.

She was surprised when they won. And when the boys kept hanging around, until days became weeks, weeks became a month, and then suddenly summer was over. They never stopped fighting, but after a while Sakura got used to the arguments. It helped that both Naruto and Sasuke had a healthy respect for her aim with a heavy object. And somewhere along the line, without her quite noticing, the two biggest jerks she knew turned into her best friends.

---------------

Next summer, Ino got sick with mononucleosis and couldn't go to camp. Sakura never even thought of staying home.

---------------

End of Story

[askerian]

oh ;^;-b BEST FIC EVER. I love how Sakura yells at them both when no one dared, and they're all such kids and so adorable and n'aww! and hahaha them staying ahead of her when they walk back to camp XDDD Fear the Sakura's wrath!

... and oh Sasuke talking about his cousin! voluntarily!! ;^; (they're all dead in this 'verse too? because if they are, that's a MAJOR thing. Ngh.) I liked when she yelled that she didn't care who'd died, because yeah, sometimes Sasuke really seems to lock himself up in The Lone Survivor like he's not allowed to be anything else. And I liked the idea that sometimes Naruto would pop up on broadcasts XD Official things or does he sneak around when they're filming? Pfff. and I also liked that even as kids he goes straight to admiring Sakura's temper instead of being offended. ♥

This was full of adorable. Poor Sakura, stuck with those two. XD But it's better than being in the background of the popular crowd. Yup. Best friends 4 lyfe! *pompoms*

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. Goodness.

I loved this! I love how their immaturity comes through and yet, I like Sakura better here.

Actually, I love this idea of how they met.

Also, though she comes across as quite immature too, I liked Ino in this and find myself really curious about the members of team ten in this AU world.

Also, Naruto is adorable and also a jerk.

[laleia.livejournal.com]

I love this summer camp series! I like Sakura rapidly losing patience with the two of them, and hitting them both with whatever was on hand (a girl after my own heart), but I also like the future versions of them in the other Summer Camp fic. In other words -- you should definitely make this a universe you write more in! I want to see the happy ending future where Naruto is elected and Sakura and Sasuke are his right and left hands!

[marici.livejournal.com]

Cute. Also, really good example of a human auspistice.

[branchandroot]

*sparkles* Finally got time to look at my "to read" list, and these are wonderful. I love the echoes of canon in a new world, and how it changes things, how much more aware Naruto is of his dad's legacy, and how he becomes aware of /other/ people's nostalgia as he gets older. And, of course, Sakura rocks /hard/. Oh man, being in a canoe with those two would be /exactly/ what it took to make her think they're both impossible (which they are).

Also, still giggling over Naruto trying to get Sakura into a bikini. And imagining how the Fox is going to howl about Sasuke being his nominal devotee. *snickers*

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

ALL of these ideas need to be written. Seriously.

Love it!

[edenfalling]

Thank you!

[runespoor7.livejournal.com]

I would buy a book of this.

[edenfalling]

Thank you!