Shooting Straight

Chapter 24

As Naruto and his shadow clones dove into the river, Arrow watched from the riverbank, intentionally disturbing the fish and causing them to jump out of the water so Sasuke could spear them with his kunai. He was shirtless and leaning against a rock behind where Sasuke stood, watching the pair with mild intrigue.

"You know we would get more fish if you would get off your ass and helped, right?" Sasuke grunted, looking over his shoulder at the brunette, who shrugged off the remark. The Uchiha rolled his eyes, pretending that he wasn't moderately distracted by the fact that Arrow was displaying his toned figure. 

"You two seem to be doing just fine on your own," Arrow replied, stifling a yawn. He watched Naruto's clones disperse in the water, and the blonde come up to the surface of the water. Naruto shook his head, flicking water off the tips of his drenched hair. He rubbed the droplets out of his eyes and looked up towards Sasuke and Arrow. 

"You only got three. I want to catch some for curing too." Sasuke grumbled at the Uzumaki, who scowled in response. "I could eat three fish just to myself, so go under again." 

Naruto growled, eyes narrowing at the Uchiha. "This is very taxing, you know! If you're going to complain then do it yourself!" He brought his fists aggressively into the water, making small splashed to emphasize his point. Arrow was about to agree with the blonde when Sakura's voice piped up from a couple of metres away, where she was beginning to build a fire.

"Sasuke, could you come to help me light the fire?" She called from the center of their campsite, causing Sasuke to roll his eyes and return his weapons to their pouch before shoving his hands into the pockets of his shorts. 

Arrow stood as the Uchiha began to walk away, and took his place on the shore. "Go under one more time, I'll stab a couple more and then we can go cook them for dinner." Naruto, eying the brunette carefully as if he didn't trust him not to spear the Uzumaki instead of the fish, hesitantly agreed. 

~~~

Arrow yawned and stretched out on the small blanket he'd brought with him, accidentally hitting Sasuke's leg in the process. Sasuke looked down to see what the disturbance had been, only to find Arrow's bright green eyes staring back at him. He blinked awkwardly, unknowing of what to say.

"Sorry," Arrow mumbled before turning away, rolling on his side, closer to where Sakura was instead. Looking up, Arrow noticed the pinkette playing with her fingers and staring into space. Reaching out, the brunette poked her in the thigh, snapping her out of her thoughts and centring her attention on him. 

"Hey, you okay?" Arrow poked her again for extra measure, not exactly sure why he cared but still feeling the need to ask. Sakura nodded quickly, plastering a smile on her face in an attempt to reassure him. 

"Yeah- of course." Sakura's smile faltered with her words, causing Arrow to frown at her. She didn't really want to delve into the fact that she was still mildly hurt that he'd practically abandoned her and had still yet to shell out a reason. However, somehow the fact of him noticing her being upset and caring enough to ask comforted her. 

Sasuke scowled as he watched Sakura and Arrow begin a poking war, jealous of the sudden level of emotion Arrow was showing around her. The Uchiha had been much happier when Arrow was closed off and rude because he still felt some sort of connection between both of their standoffishness. While at the same time, he was envious of how Sakura had been able to establish some level of a friendship, whereas he and Naruto were still standing outside of those mental barriers. Somehow Sakura had made it to the "in crowd", even though she had been the one to make Arrow angry on so many occasions. Sasuke had seen her bring out the worst in Arrow, and still, somehow she managed to get to see the best.