Uzumaki

Lightning

It was sunny.

Damp bedsheets were strung across the rooftop; the sunlight made them a stinging white, and the wide blue sky sucked heat from the earth. Naruto saw clouds nestling at the horizon.

A bristling wind skimmed Konoha's rooftops, and the sheets shuffled, weighted with damp. Naruto caught a glimpse of Satsuki's feet, and saw one lift off the ground.

He yanked a kunai to his front.

Satsuki tore through the white of the sheets like a demon, a kunai tearing the sheet and a fan cutting in an arc toward Naruto's chest. The flat of his kunai met the fan in a parry: Satsuki scowled, and she pivoted, her leg spinning to undercut him.

Naruto cursed, and scrabbled for the sheet above him with his free arm. He yanked himself upwards, and missed the hit by a hair: the sheet slipped from the pegs, pulling from the line.

He flung himself backwards, barely evading a punch from Satsuki's empty hand. The sheet covered her for a moment; she dived forward into a roll and stopped behind a thick blue blanket. Her feet were still for a moment. She quaked with heavy breaths.

There was a lull, a tiny one; Naruto wondered what she was thinking, and yearned for something to say. His tongue clicked off his bottom teeth, and his breath was lost in the sweeping air of the rooftops.

Her stance lowered a little; he saw her eyes now. Perhaps she'd heard the words he almost spoke. Her right hand was in front of her, shrivelled and empty, and her left curled around to her back, but he couldn't see the hand. He imagined the curve of the fan like a half-hidden red sun shining over her back. The gleam of her Sharingan stained his eyes, and for a moment-

--

"-and turn off your Sharingan, you bastard, you scared me!"

--

'This seriously isn't the time to be thinking about ghost stories,' Naruto thought, but there was a tenderness in the memory of that night. He remembered the glow of her eyes, the hiccup of her tears, and the shooting star that had cut the sky in two; all swathed by darkness.

'So why am I thinking of that now?'

He shook himself from his reverie a moment too late; Satsuki's fist was inches away from his face, and though he jerked away her fist slammed into his shoulder painfully. He began to fall, twisting, legs sprawling, and a glee lit in her eyes- she pulled him to face upwards with one arm, and slammed her knee into the small of his back. White hot pain shot through him. His shadow clone pulled her back, but he hit the floor hard, not rolling an inch. His frame shook.

He looked over. The smoke of his dispelled clone cloaked her, but even through it, he saw her bright Sharingan. He marvelled at their strange and unique ability to scorch themselves into the darkness behind his eyelids; the stains that had stared into him on too many sleepless nights.

Naruto stood, his back protesting the movement, and jumped forwards feet first, launching shuriken from both hands. She ducked, latching onto his ankles, and he gritted his teeth. He leaned backwards, flattening one hand onto the roof and scrabbling for the fallen white sheet with the other. He threw it into the air: Satsuki's eyes followed it, and seizing the distraction desperately, he kicked her away.

He spun on the still grounded palm of his right arm, landing securely. Steadying himself for a moment, Naruto lunged forward into a wild haymaker. Satsuki caught it in her palm, smirking, and Naruto allowed her a moment of it before he slammed her blindspot with a painful left hook to the jaw.