Book 1: Broken (Kiba Inuzuka Love Story)

Chapter 12

I sit on Sakura's right and Ace sits next to me, tail wrapping around him. "Here," Says Tsunami, coming over with a bowl of rice.

I nod my head appreciatively as I pick up my chopsticks.

Tsunami comes back with a plate of steak on it, holding it out to Ace. He smiles, making the dark eyed woman sweat drop, but Tsunami sets the plate down and steps away.

Ace tears into his meat as we eat breakfast in calm silence.

Sakura yawns and Kakashi sits on the step, fiddling with the metal plate on his left glove, as Tazuna questions, "Naruto's not here? It looks like he was out all night again."

Finishing rubbing her sleep filled eye, Sakura says, "He's gone completely crazy. He's out climbing trees in the dark. He could be dead by now. You know, from using up too much of his chakra."

Bringing a tray of food over, Tsunami says in concern, "Well, I certainly hope he's okay. A child, spending the night in the woods alone."

Kakashi tells her, "There's nothing to worry about. Naruto's a goofy kid, but he's also a full fledged ninja. He can handle himself."

Sasuke says, "Sakura's right. Naruto's such a loser. He's probably lying out there dead somewhere."

Sasuke gets up and starts for the door. Sakura calls after him, "Sasuke?"

Pausing, he replies without looking at her, "I'm going for a walk."

"But we just started eating..." Sakura trails off as she and I look back at Sasuke's plate, only to see it's empty, along with his glass of milk. "Huh? That was fast." Sakura's left green eye twitches.

Sometime after breakfast, I go out with Kakashi and Sakura to look for the boys. I'm riding on Ace's back next to Kakashi, who is using only a single crutch now.

"Naruto?!" Sakura calls with her hands around her mouth. No response. "Knowing Naruto, he could be anywhere, and Sasuke hasn't come back either. I wonder where they are?" Just then, a kunai knife comes flying through the air and thunks into the ground at our feet.

We jerk our heads up to see Naruto about twenty metres up the tree, lying on his stomach on the branch.

"Whoa! Naruto can climb that high now using his chakra?" Sakura says in amazement. "That's great."

Naruto calls, "What do you think?! High enough for you guys? I mean, it's a long way down, huh?" He then jumps to his feet and starts to lose his balance on the narrow branch, tilting backwards.

Sakura and I exclaim, "Naruto!!"

"Uh oh!" Kakashi mutters.

Sakura screams and I was about to leap up and save Naruto, but then he catches himself under the branch by using his chakra in his feet, arms crossed.

Naruto bends backwards to look at us as he laughs, "Haha! Just kidding! You guys fell for it!" He laughs again, causing my left eye to twitch.

Sakura snaps in a flustered tone, "We were worried about you, Naruto!"

Kakashi wonders aloud, "Why do I think this is going to end badly...?"

I sigh as both my eyes twitch, "Probably because it is... well, I'm not going to save his ass if he falls."

Ace muses, gazing up at him, "So that's Naruto Uzumaki, huh?"

Naruto continues to laugh gleefully, but then cuts himself off upon finally noticing Ace, and his eyes bug in their sockets just as his feet pop off the branch. Naruto screams as our eyes jerk wide as saucers and Sakura screams in fear.