Lost in the Blue

#8 - Sasuke

The yellow jewel in Ena's hand twinkled in Naruto's widening eyes. Shikamaru was pouting, searching deep within his inner-encyclopedia for things related. Sakura had her hands crossed in her lap, digesting Ena's words fully. Shino was unbothered.

"I don't get it." Naruto said.

Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes. Of course he didn't. It was so obvious.

Chakra energy was stored in a jewel, there were only five different colours, each pertaining to an elemental chakra nature transformation. Yellow for lightning, deep orange for earth, blue for water, red for fire and green for wind. Each jewel must give the user the power of the elemental chakra nature, therefore that's why Ena had all five in a necklace. She was the leader; she got all the power.

She basically had a rinnegan.

"Your friend is very smart." Ena said to Naruto, pointing her chin at him.

Naruto turned to him, eyes still sparkling, "Sasuke? Yea, he's a genius. But can also be an idiot sometimes."

Sasuke's face fell, eyebrows furrowing, "Says the king of the idiots."

"Hey!" Naruto screeched, "If I'm so dumb, why does Ichiraku's have a ramen named after me?!"

"He felt bad for you cause you spend so much money there." Sasuke retorted.

"Alright!" Sakura put her hands between them, "Ena, can you explain to the rest of us how the chakra jewels work?"

Sasuke glared at Naruto while Ena explained further, confirming his suspicions. The jewels were based on elemental chakra natures, and wearing one gave you that power.

He could see Naruto's eye twitching, trying to comprehend the concept. He was always bad at having things explained to him— Naruto needed to hold the jewel and use it to grasp the general idea.

Naruto held his hand out for Ena to place the jewel into it. Sasuke stared into the glimmering yellow stone, waiting for Naruto to drop it in pain.

Nothing happened.

Naruto frowned and peered over at Sasuke.

"It doesn't sting?" He said.

Sasuke reached out and poked it. A shock passed through his finger, causing him to recoil in pain.

"Ah," Ena said, "Interesting. The jewel doesn't like you."

"What?" Sasuke cried. "It's lightning! That's my elemental chakra nature."

Ena shrugged, "It happens. Jewels are temperamental."

"It's a rock." Sasuke said.

"Sasuke." Naruto placed his hand on his thigh, "It's just one stone amongst hundreds."

He inspected Naruto's face, then glanced at the hand on his thigh.

The warmth pouring out of it was overwhelming, immediately disrupting Sasuke's train of thought.

"Our people weren't born with chakra, you know." Ena said, "We were originally from the Land of Wind. As other clans got stronger and more violent, we fled to the sea. This island called out to our ancestors and gave us the power of the jewels for protection."

"I assume there's a mine around here?" Shikamaru asked.

"Your assumption is correct. On the west side of the island, there are a few caves at the edge of the volcano. We go there once and a while to gather more, but there's more than enough to go around." Ena said.

She grabbed a red jewel from a bowl in the centre of the table and tossed it into Sasuke's lap. Dammit, he was too distracted by Naruto's knee touch to catch the jewel. His reflexes failed him, which was a rare occasion. Of course, Naruto affected him in that aspect too.