The Breaking Point (SasukeXOC)

16

I moved my attention from the fat lady and her domestic rodent to the Hokage whom sat calmly at his desk smoking a long pipe. Iruka-sensei stood beside him dutifully.

"Good, another completed mission for Team 7. Lets see what else there is..." the Hokage trailed off as he looked through a list of, no doubt, D rank missions for us. "Walking a dog, pulling weeds, watching an ambassador's son-"

"No! No way!" Naruto interrupted making an X with his arms in the air.

Can he interrupt the Hokage like that? That can't be inconsequential...

"Naruto!" Iruka-sensei snapped for his behavior. Naruto ignored him.

"Come on, old man! I'm not the same little kid who used to pull pranks all the time; I'm a ninja now! I want a real mission!" he yelled before pouting and falling to the floor finishing his tantrum.

As much as I might agree with him I would never be so disrespectful of those at a higher social standing than I. That's something hard engrained in me from my days as an Uchiha outcast. I can't believe he can call the strongest ninja in all of Konoha 'old man' and get away with it.

"Ah, I'm terribly sorry, Lord Hokage..." Kakashi-sensei began seeming incredibly embarrassed for his student who continued to pout on the floor.

"So, Naruto isn't a little kid anymore, eh?" the Hokage began seeming thoughtful, but we all knew better.

The Hokage didn't need to think aloud, he was too smart for that. He must've already made his decision and is just teasing Naruto. I furrowed my brow slightly, it was a tad frustrating that Naruto could act like a huge brat and others found it endearing.

If anyone else acted like that there would definitely be consequences. One doesn't need parents to be punished.

I rubbed my shoulder where a small scar remained from my childhood. Long story short I was disrespectful to the daughter of an important member of the Uchiha clan. Her father branded the Uchiha clan symbol there to remind me of my standing and my devotion to the clan.

"Alright, you can come in now!" the Hokage called towards the door which slid open on cue to reveal an old drunkard.

Who the heck is this guy? I guess I was lost in thought and missed what the Hokage said.

"What? These brats are going to be protecting me? You can't honestly expect me to believe that these kids are ninjas, especially the short one with the stupid face." The man grumbled out before stumbling fully into the room. Naruto burst out laughing a second later.

"Who's the one with the stupid face?" Naruto choked out around his mirth. Sasuke and Sakura lined up beside me, as I was already standing next to Naruto and very confused about what was happening.

Sasuke was the tallest Gennin on our team, followed by Sakura, and then me and finally Naruto about a half inch shorter than I. "I'll kill you!" Naruto yelled, his laughter quickly turning to rage.

"Now, now, killing the man we were assigned to protect goes against our mission." Kakashi-sensei calmly stated as he held onto the back of Naruto's shirt in order to halt the boy, his eyes never leaving his book.

"I am Tazuna, the master bridge builder. I expect you lot to escort me back to my home in the Land of Waves safely, even if it costs you your lives." The drunkard spoke in an ironically sober tone.

I narrowed my eyes at the man; his change in character was odd to say the least. In the corner of my eye I could see Kakashi-sensei also giving Tazuna a carful assessment, it seems he noticed the peculiar change as well.

"Alright Team 7, pack your bags and meet at the gate in an hour." Kakashi-sensei spoke as we all exited the Hokage tower and began our way home.

I walked quietly behind Sasuke still attempting to piece together what the heck was going on. Suddenly, I bumped into something incredibly hard in front of me. I broke my thoughtful gaze of the ground to see if I ran into a wall.

Instead of a wall, I had run into Sasuke's back. Sasuke had stopped abruptly in front of me. For a second I was thrown at the sheer amount of muscle packed onto Sasuke's form. I had honestly thought with how hard he felt that I had ran into a wall.

"You have no idea what's going on, do you?" Sasuke spoke pulling me from my, admittedly embarrassing, inner thoughts.

"Huh?" I stupidly asked still trying to shake my embarrassment before he could suspect something.

"Do you ever listen?" he turned his head to the side so I could make out his little smirk. I cocked my head to the side in curiosity. For some reason this smirk of his, that would usually seem cynical and rude, felt soft and playful. I moved around the boy to his side and we began walking once more.

"I listen." I protested realizing how juvenile that sounded, "I was just thinking is all..." Sasuke shot his playful smirk at me again and I frowned in return.

"We're going on a C rank mission, idiot. We have to protect Tazuna the bridge builder on his journey to the Land of Waves." I nodded feeling surprised that Naruto's pouting actually worked.

"Oh, well that's nice. We're actually leaving the village on this one." I added but then pursed my lips.

I was still a little hurt by what he said to me the other night, but I couldn't exactly bring it up. I knew I didn't have any sort of social skills but he didn't have to point it out. Plus bringing it up would just reintroduce the topic and I definitely didn't want to re-embarrass myself. Maybe I'll just pretend it didn't happen, that would be much easier.

"What were you thinking about?" Sasuke cut into my thoughts after a brief pause.

"What?"

"At the Hokage Tower, what was so interesting to think about that you stopped paying attention to the Hokage?" I watched the side of Sasuke's face as he refused to look at me in thought.

Somehow I got the feeling that he didn't really care about what I was thinking about. But then why would he ask me and prolong our conversation? We stepped into the Uchiha clan head household and I paused to give Sasuke his answer before entering my room to pack.

"Just a memory." 

Oh, Sasuke you sly dog! We all know you only asked Miyu about what she was thinking because you wanted to keep talking to her! Can't get anything past us! 

Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! It's a tad short, so sorry about that. But things are about to heat up! Team 7's first "C" rank mission ;) 

Happy reading!