The Ultimate Weapon (Naruto Fanfic)

27-Finding a Trail

A soft groan sounded from the figure under the pile of blankets. Everyone in the room looked over to the pile as Aoi sat up holding his head. Nobody said anything for a while, just staring at him as he rubbed his head lightly for a while. When he finally looked up, the regular blank expression was once again on Aoi's face. One or two people sighed in relief at this.

Shikamaru stood and walked over to Aoi's bedside. "How are you feeling Aoi?" His expression seemed lax, and Aoi looked up at him only to quickly look away when his eyes were irritated at the light directly behind Shikamaru.

"My head hurts." Kodomo scoffed at the reply, while Ryo chuckled lightly. Looking over at the two, a brief light of confusion shone in Aoi's eyes.

"As I would expect it to, you were very drunk last night," Shikamaru's tone was serious, and Aoi glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.

"What is drunk? And how do you become so?" Shikamaru blinked, but answered through his confusion nonetheless.

"Well you see, when one drinks alcohol, their brain and judgement is affected. This is what we refer to as being drunk. The state of overall loopiness that comes from the consumption of alcohol." Aoi nodded slightly, then rubbed his head.

"May I go back to sleep?" Aoi looked up at Shikamaru from under the curtain of his hair.

Kodomo sprang from his seat. "Hey, what's with that attitude!? Aren't you even going to apologize!?" Aoi winced slightly as Kodomo's loud voice seemed to pound against his skull.

When he was done yelling, Kodomo stood in front of Aoi waiting for an answer. "Why would I apologize?"

"Do you not remember? You freaking tossed me around and called me Koko-chan!"

Aoi sat there a moment in thought. A bleary image of the events that happened came to him and he looked Kodomo in the eye. He said sorry in a monotone voice, his expression not changing in the slightest.

Running a hand through his hair, Kodomo looked down at Aoi. "You could at least sound like you mean it." He shook his head and sat back down on the floor.

The room fell into a silence. Shikamaru seemed to be regarding Aoi, who sat there with straight backed posture and his face a perfect slate. Kodomo had given up his anger at Aoi, and was now simply staring at the ceiling. Eventually, Aoi broke the silence, by looking over at Shikamaru.

"You never answered when I asked you if I could sleep." Shikamaru considered this, before nodding.

"I guess you can, but first," Shikamaru reached for the teapot on the table, pouring a rich brown liquid into a cup. He handed the cup to Aoi, and the blue haired boy sniffed the mixture, taking in the rich scent of the coffee. "Drink that, it's what my dad does when he gets drunk. I don't know how much it will help, but he says it works."

Looking into the nearly black liquid, Aoi hesitated slightly before taking a sip. "It is very bitter."

Shikamaru nodded. "No sleep until you drink the entire cup though." Aoi glanced at him before looking back at the coffee. He brought the cup to his lips, drinking it in a few quick gulps before handing the empty cup to Shikamaru and rolling over onto his side. When Aoi's bird came over and pecked at his face, all Aoi did was gently swat at it, shooing the animal. Within moments, it seemed Aoi was once again asleep.

_+_

 Murasaki squinted slightly, annoyed at the bright light that was spread across his face. Eventually he sat up, taking in the surrounding inn room. When the four had finally reached the town last night, it was well past midnight. They were lucky to find an inn open as late as it was, especially considering how small the town really was. Sitting up the rest of the way and rubbing sleep from his eyes, Murasaki gathered his belongings and got ready for the day.