Mistaken

Chapter Eight : Drifting Away

Almost 3 years had passed and boring D ranked missions were a thing of the past. The three of us had passed genin and were chunin, Sasuke was well on his way to Jonin, me and Sakura were too busy studying to take the Jonin exam with him. I sat crisscross by my coffee table jotting down little tips Sakura was giving me. "Hmm but don't you think that Sage herb would be more effective than Russian Sage?" Sakura inquired and I thought about it for a moment. "But Sage has a weird smell to it and Russian Sage smells better." I huffed and Sakura deadpanned. "Naruto-Baka it doesn't matter which one smells better but the one with the more potent effect." She frowned I could see she was holding back from hitting me. "Okay okay I get it, smell is irrelevant, efficiency is more important." I grumbled as I erased what I had written about Russian Sage. Sakura was whizzing through Grandma Tsunade's teachings, I on the other hand was struggling a bit and wasn't learning as fast but I knew how to preform first aides, some healing and cure simple common poisons. But in turn I was excelling in funinjutsu, sealing arts (funinjutsu) were just so much easier than medical ninjutsu well at least to me. Everyone who tried to learn with me complained on how nothing made sense which in my opinion I honestly don't get how they don't understand how straight forward it is.

"So to make this antidote we would use Sage, the stem of the jade flower and boil it down before adding a bit of hornstibe powder and a bit of crushed basil, right." I say underling the key ingredients, Sakura nodded and began naming herbs that could be used if we weren't able to find those specific ingredients and I couldn't help but groan slightly and began writing it down. I hated this, I like hands on learning, but Tsunade told me it would be helpful if I did a little studying on the components of the herbs and got Sakura to help me since she knew them like the back of her hand.

I stretched and stood up. "I'm going to go check on the food." I grumble after Sakura finished naming off alternative herbs for the antidote. "So Sasuke is coming later?" Sakura asked as she sat back watching me stand up and walk to the kitchen. "Yeah, he's training with Kakashi  right now, they'll come later." I say as I lift the top for the rice checking to see if it was ready. "Oh okay, he comes here often doesn't he?" She asked doodling on the side of the paper. "Yeah he does, I say he practically lives here. The spare bedroom is full of his clothes, but I guess it's okay my apartment is bigger too so ." I shrugged as I turned off the rice cooker and let the rice cool so I could make onigiri. "Now that I think about it, Sasuke is nicer than he was when we first graduated, back then he'd barely speak and would ignore us." Sakura chuckled and I smiled. "Being on a team and having to work together seems to have changed us, and we've dealt with life threatening missions together, survived, and gotten stronger so he probably warmed up to us." I say smiling and I stirred the filling for the onigiri rice balls. "Mm hmm." Sakura nodded before the door opened Sasuke walked into the apartment, I had given him a spare key for if he needed to get his things and I wasn't home and because why not.

"You should've at least knocked." Kakashi sweat dropped as he walked in right behind him. "Dobe, I'm home." Sasuke called out noticing Sakura and then seeing me in the kitchen. "I'm making dinner." I called out noticing Kakashi sensei. "You staying for dinner Kakashi sensei?" I asked and he shook his head. "Thanks for the offer but I have plans." He stated. "I was just brining Sasuke back, he used up a lot of chakra and could have passed out at any moment, I leave him your care Naruto." He stated as he turned and left closing the door behind him.

"I'm taking a shower." Sasuke grumbled, I sighed and threw him a small bag of food pills which he caught with ease. "Take one, I don't want to have to go pull you out of the shower if you pass out." I say and he nodded walking down the hall. "Naruto do you need some help?" Sakura asked and I nodded, I had been teaching her some simple cooking skills but Sakura wasn't a very good cook in general but she was helpful in the kitchen so I let her help out. "You think Grandma Tsunade will give me a mission if I ask her?" I ask Sakura since she was her apprentice and helped her file mission work. "Yeah but you'll need a team to go with, I'm studying so I can't go but I'm sure Sasuke could go and you'll need to find two other members." Sakura stated as she shaped an onigiri. I nodded, "but could you ask her for me pretty please?!" I ask and Sakura sighed. "Yeah sure I'll mention it to her tomorrow. But I think I have a mission in mind." Sakura stated as we continued to make rice balls.