Never Trust Your Rinnegan (Tales of Sasuke's Travels)

Chapter 27

 Plot? What's that? I only know mindless fluff.

I know Sasuke's birthday is several months from now, but in this story it would've just passed and it felt kind of weird to just have them ignore it, especially since they know his birthday thanks to the interrogation a while back. I did, however, skip Yamada's birthday which is on the 7th of July but at that point Yamada and Aizawa didn't know Sasuke and Eri very well so they probably celebrated quietly.

Sasuke's sleep fades away when he hears Eri's small feet enter the room and stand over his bed.

"Sasuke-san... Sasuke-san, wake up!" She whispers.

He opens his eyes to find her eyes directly above his. "Eri." He responds, his voice is gravelly with sleep. "What time is it?"

"8am!" She responds cheerily. She must've gotten that from Yamada.

Sasuke sighs and gets up. Eri holds her hand out for him to take. "Come with me!"

He hesitantly grabs her hand and lets her lead him into the kitchen, which is decorated with lights and balloons.

"We missed your birthday... So here!" She drops his hand and gestures to their surroundings.

"Happy birthday, Sasuke!" Aizawa and Yamada say together, though Aizawa looks like he hasn't slept at all ever, he doesn't seem upset.

They're both holding up a stack of pancakes with chocolate syrup drizzled on each of them and a candle in the center. The table is set with festive plates, napkins, and placemats.

Sasuke inhales to say something but it gets caught in his throat, so all he manages is, "Oh."

"Do you not like it?" Eri asks.

"No– it's. It's... nice." He mumbles.

Aizawa and Yamada set the plate of pancakes down on the counter and Aizawa steps closer to him.

"Come on, kid."

Sasuke's brain kicks itself into gear when it realizes that he's just been standing there, silently, for the better part of a minute.

He sits down at the table and scans each aspect of the room, ignoring the part of his mind that's screaming at him for being so careless.

The lights in the kitchen are dim, most of the light is coming from the sole candle on the pancake tower. The kitchen is spotless and a few balloons hang in the corner. Sasuke doesn't know how they managed to do this without his knowledge but he's reluctantly impressed.

Eri climbs onto the seat next to him.

"You ready?" Yamada whispers over-exaggeratedly in Eri's direction. She nods once, resolute.

"Happy birthday to you," It's awful singing, it really is. Yamada is the only one who's able to properly carry a tune and Eri's probably never even used her vocal chords for singing.

"Happy birthday to you," It's... let no one find out he thinks this, but it's sweet. It's endearing. It was nice of them to even remember his birthday at all, since the only time he mentioned it was at the police interrogation and then everything else happened. He hadn't even thought about it. But they did.

The last people to think of his birthday were Itachi and his mother for his 7th birthday.

"Happy birthday dear Sasuke... Happy birthday to you!"

He feels a bit childish when he blows out the candles, but he supposes he can afford it, just this once.

~~~