[GUtW]—❈—43:: Downtime

I wake up in my bedroom at home.

What the hell? I wonder sitting up in bed.

How am I here? The last I remember I was being trained to unconsciousness by Kakashi as a sendoff 'present' in that ANBU facility he took me to.

Did he seriously sneak me back home after that?

How would he even have managed that?

Better, question: why bother? Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to simply let me rest off my exhaustion at the facility like I've done the last two weeks?

Wait… is it possible he's done this because he knows it'll mess with my head trying to figure out how and why?

…

Yes. Yes, it is.

In fact, more than just being possible, it's extremely likely.

Getting out of bed, I notice my bag on the ground, the one I'd taken with me on the two-week training nightmare Kakashi just put me through.

I pick it up, intending to check if anything is missing (not that I expect for there to be), and to set everything back to their proper places in my room if there isn't, but when I open the bag, I find a note right on top of everything else.

There's an address, and under it the words; meet there at 09:00 p.m.

I look to the clock on my nightstand to know the time, my internal clock having been obliterated after weeks of exhaustive physical activity in a place with no access to sunlight or timekeeping tools. The clock says 06:47, and the light coming through my window says p.m.

I've got time.

—❈—

It's sometime past seven when I leave home.

The address Kakashi had given me is in one of the oldest parts of the village, and it takes me through the shopping district.

Idly, I do some light window-shopping as I walk past, distractedly staring at clothes, jewelry, and other items that, while I could likely afford, am unlikely to ever purchase.

I don't need them. And I don't particularly want them. And honestly, looking at these things is starting to remind me of the storage scrolls full of the personal belongings of my dead clan members sitting in one of my drawers.

The property could not simply have been left sitting in their empty houses after all, they might go bad, and maintaining them would be rather a lot of trouble, therefore, in one of the drawers of my wardrobe are over two dozen storage scrolls full of the property of my clan, making me, Sasuke Uchiha, quite possibly, the wealthiest ninja on The Continent.

Yay me.

Mood fouled by that thought, I begin to walk faster, intent on quickly leaving this place with its flashy windows and pointless fineries meant for idiots with too much money that doesn't make them angry and sad to have or spend.

"Sasuke?" a quiet voice calls out to me.

I stop and turn.

Stepping out from the store right next to me, with a brown-eyed woman carrying her shopping bags beside her, is Hinata Hyūga.

… Wait, Hinata. Hinata Hyūga of Team 8. The team that went on the mission to Wave two weeks ago. The mission that I'd tried to keep myself from worrying about, at least until the madness of our own mission and Kakashi's training had completely swept it from my head.

I stare at the girl, none of my thoughts showing on my face.

"Hinata," I say, dipping my head politely in greeting.

She bows back, going, I notice, lower than I had.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. Hyūga; so needlessly formal.

"Good evening, Sasuke," Hinata says. "This is Kasumi." She gestures at the woman beside her.

With her brown eyes and carrying of Hinata's bags as she is, Kasumi could be anything from a servant to a Hyūga by marriage.

Though, with this clan, I understand there really isn't much of a difference between the two.

Kasumi bows, going much lower than Hinata had.

"Lord Uchiha," she says formally.

The urge to roll my eyes increases; no one uses that title for clan heads except in formal occasion. No one, of course, except the Hyūga.

I swear these people make even my clan look like a bunch of… Naruto.

I dip my head at Kasumi also, then to Hinata ask; "When did you return? From your mission to Wave?"

"A week ago," Hinata says. "You? You had a mission to Springtree, yes?"

I nod. "Yes. We came back two weeks ago. How did your mission go? Any problems with pirates?"

I couldn't care less about pirates, but I can't exactly come out and ask if one of The Seven Swords of Mist tried to kill them all, can I?

"No," Hinata says, "none at all. Kiba was quite disappointed at how calm it all turned out to be. What about your mission? Were there any surprises?"

"One or two, but we handled them quickly," I answer, trying not to let my relief at her answer show; I'd been a lot more worried about this than even I had realized apparently.

"That's good to hear," Hinata says happily. "Team 10 also had a good first mission, so that makes for all three of us on the fast track. Though I wonder how it's been for those from our year who didn't make it onto the program.

"Have you spoken with any of them?"

"No," I say.

Honestly? I've barely thought of any of them since we graduated.

Actually, even back at The Academy I barely thought of any of them. And I doubt that's changing any time soon.

Hinata and I make some more small talk, but neither of us are big on talking, and we've both got places to be, so not long after, we say our goodbyes and I continue to the address Kakashi gave me.

—❈—

The address that Kakashi gave me is a cozy, little bar called The Blunt Kunai, and somehow, even though I get there over thirty minutes before the nine o'clock time Kakashi gave, I'm the last of the team to arrive, including Kakashi.

We sit at a quiet table in the back of the obviously ninja-favoured establishment and… nothing.

We just drink and talk.

Well, not quite. First, Kakashi informs us that Kei and Ken have been sent back to their little village, taking yet another weight that I've ignored off my chest, then we drink and talk.

Not about anything important, just… random, pointless stuff.

Old stories, shared and personal, things we would like to do, things we like to do, just… simple, light topics.

Naruto does most of the talking naturally, with Sakura coming in second. I pitch in every now and again, mostly drawn in by the others, and Kakashi keeps the whole thing going and on track.

I see what he's doing. Actually, I think we all do; The Chūnin Exams start the day after tomorrow, and we'll likely spend most of tomorrow getting to wherever we need to be for that.

We've just spent the last two weeks in intense training, and our lives are about to get even more intense; we need downtime.

And this is it.

And while I would personally rather spend it alone at home, I suppose this is good for the team.

Besides, there are worse things than having to listen to Sakura and Naruto talk.

—❈—

So, it just recently came to my attention that you've been dealing with broken links in the notification emails for new chapters.

I apologize for this.

Please, notify me if you experienced that with this chapter.

Thanks for reading.