Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or make any money from these writings.
Chapter One
No matter how much he tried to pay attention to whatever it was his lecturer was talking about this week, his eyes were just refusing stay open, and his brain had added to the revolt by drifting in and out of consciousness. Naruto was most definitely fighting with a severe case of nodding dog syndrome. It wasn't unusual though, and he had gone through his usual tactics – two large coffees, lucazade tablets and inane scribbling to try and keep his mind focused on something – yet today none of those were proving to help in any way. Still, you win some and you lose some, and at the moment, as he was still awake, he counted it as a win thus far.
It probably didn't help that his head was slightly worse for wear as he was still feeling the effects of last night's alcohol intake. He didn't really get handovers with the headaches and thirst cravings, but it did leave his head muggy and that made his concentration levels plummet. This morning when he had briefly caught a glance of himself in the small bathroom mirror, everything was already a bit hazy as his eyes were red raw from lack of sleep, and the rest of his dishevelled look made him grimace. After a burst of cold water in the shower though and running a comb through his hair to make it slightly more manageable, even though it was still far from being styled. The look seemed to work for him and took minimal effort so he stuck with it.
"Oi!" The harsh whisper came from behind him and was joined with a jab in the shoulder by some kind of implement. "Naruto?... Naruto!..."
"What?" He hissed back as he turned and eyed up the black pen that looked threatening like it was about to attack him once again. Then his glare moved on to the arm that was wielding such a weapon, and turned into scowl as he eyes rested the girl behind all of this. Her gaze however were already back down on the pages sprawled out in front of her and her other hand was practically grabbing at her pale pink hair in despair. He knew that Sakura always panicked as soon as exams started to close in on them all, but now that her university options relied on her marks, she was basically on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Naruto had never had to worry about such things. His parents were never around enough to drill him on doing his homework, or even ask how school was going. I had even crossed his mind that they probably didn't even realise that this was his final year before he would be leaving for university. Without anyone pushing him, it was lucky that he had the natural ability to always sail through exams. On the other hand, that was one of the reasons why Sakura often enlisted his help, as well as fumed when they got the same pass marks while she knew she had put considerably more effort into the whole process.
"Do you get any of this? It's completely going over my head. Like this part... here... what does that even say?" Leaning back on his chair, Naruto bent his head uncomfortably backwards to see what his friend was pointing at. He had to agree, with her nerves finally getting the better of her even he couldn't decipher the illegible annotations she had tried to jot down.
"Sakura... chill! You know this stuff and you know you're going to pass."
"I don't want to just pass!" A look of horror flashed across her face as she was obviously imagining the possible outcomes of not getting into her first choice course.
Coming back to reality, Sakura's train of thought was interrupted as she noticed that Naruto was struggling not to yawn and now that she looked him in the eye properly, she could see how bloodshot they were.
"Are you okay? Did you even go home last night?"
"What? Where did that come from?" Naruto frowned at the sudden change of topic. Seconds later though, his face was covered with a grin and he announced all was great and he'd had the best night that lacked a lot of sleep. It was an empty smile, but one that Naruto regularly used so she tried not to let her worry over him show. If he could brush it off then so would she.
"Whose bed did you sleep in last night then," she winked.
"Mine... I think..." The actual concentration on his face as he tried to recall whether or not it was last night or the night before that he had passed out on the sofa at a house party was classic. A small crease appeared in between his eyebrows as he frown over the effort it took to access his memory. He did however remember eating some very dodgy looking bread for his toast this morning, and that was from his house, so the sofa must have been the night before. "Yeah, definitely mine."
Sakura laughed but at the same time looked slightly horrified that it took him so long to figure out something that would have been a simple question to anyone else. She had also been implying something that he hadn't seemed to have picked up on, so in her point of view, he had just helped fuel the rumours that had been said about him having a different girl practically every day. Her expression didn't go unnoticed and Naruto saw this as a good time to try and change the subject.
"Anyway..." He looked over the page again and flicked through his folder to find the same topic. "That's just what we went over last week about teams and motivation." Stifling back yet another yawn as he rubbed at his eyes and then temples, he waved her off saying, "it's all that boring business theory about Tuckman's stages of group development."
Feeling that his duty was fulfilled, his chair fell forward with a thud, causing his lecturer to pause slightly, giving him a disapproving look, but continuing anyway without any reprimands. Any figures of authority had most likely given up trying to deal with the teenager in question. Everyone knew that he was always practically asleep during most lessons, apart from the very rare occasional days when he got excited about something and instead was just disruptive with his continuous chatter. It seemed he could only exist in either one of the two extremes – there was no middle ground in terms of Naruto. It was hard for his teachers to find fault though when his grades were always surprisingly above average. He had joked before to Sakura that information just sunk in better when he slept, but after some serious questioning he realised that she wasn't the right person to joke about studying techniques to.
He had also known her long enough that he should've realised that he wasn't about to get away from her that easily just because he had turned back to face away from her questioning. It took a couple of seconds to come, as she must have waited to make sure that the teacher's attention was definitely focused away from them, but then the pen was back in his shoulder blade, repeatedly, until his head turned once again.
"What?" He mouthed.
Her pen tapped the pages in front of her as she locked eyes with him, half pleading, half angry at his reluctance to help. Shrugging Naruto raised his eyebrows in a expression of 'and?' but as he saw her eyes turn a shade darker he tried a different approach and tried to indicate towards Ino, the blond girl perched on the chair next to Sakura that was supposedly her best friend. Sakura rolled her eyes which nearly made Naruto laugh out loud. Sure it wasn't the best suggestion, but it was worth a try to get the attention off of him.
Suddenly the noise in the room picked up and the pair realised they had probably been set a question or group exercise to discuss, giving Sakura the perfect opportunity to lay into Naruto once more. Before she even got the words out, he held up his hands in a mock surrender.
"Fine, look, I'll go over it with you..."
"Wow, a group study session, awesome! I could totally use some help with this stuff, how anyone manages to remember all this is completely beyond me." Ino's high pitched voice was slightly overwhelming when Naruto hasn't expected it. Not only that, she had just invited herself along, which meant what would have been a quick going over of major study points with Sakura had now turned into a complete going over of everything for Ino's benefit which could take forever.
"If you didn't spend all lesson texting..." Sakura started to mumble under her breath but with the intention of being heard.
"Jealousy." Ino stated to Naruto even though Sakura's expression was blatantly saying 'yeah right!'
As she was oblivious to all non-verbal communication that was taking place, Ino just continued talking. "So... when shall we do this? I'm meeting Sai tonight so can we do it tomorrow?"
"I work weekends remember," Naruto pointed out. "Plus we're having a few birthday drinks for one of the guys there straight after. How about Sunday? Shorter work day! So, around six-ish?" His questions were aimed more at Sakura seeing as it was originally her that asked him for help, unlike a certain person that just expected to be able to encroach on the whole thing. She started to nod but was interrupted by unmistakeable buzz of a phone on vibrate.
"Sorry, I've gotta take this." Ino stood up and hit the answer button before she even made it out of the classroom door.
"Sai I'm guessing?" Sakura sighed at the question.
"Who else?" Was her only response.
"Okay then, I'm also guessing that this is a regular thing? I thought they only started going out the other week."
"They did, but seriously, she spends all her time with him, or talking to him, or texting him. It's never ending! Anyway, I've heard enough about him for about five lifetimes, let's just talk about something else. Did you finish the set questions the other week as one of them..."
"Come on Sakura, it's Friday! And we have like fifteen minutes until it's technically the weekend!" With that he lent back again so that his chair was balanced on its two back legs and his feet were propped up on the desk in front of him. "Promise me something, until we meet on Sunday, no work, no studying, no books! Just relax for a bit, okay. Give your mind a break and then we'll go through everything, and with Ino there, I mean everything! Probably about three times as well for that matter."
At least that brought a smile to the girl's lips. "Fine, I promise. What am I supposed to do instead? I doubt Ino will ever manage to detach herself from Sai, and with you at work!"
"Come on! It's work!"
"Don't try and pull that on me Naruto, I know you love it at work! Being surrounded by books the whole time, and you're always talking about all the people there. I'd love to have your job." He couldn't really disagree with her. He had always wanted to work in a book store, and was amazed that he actually managed to secure himself a weekend job there.
"Okay, okay. Come visit though, we'll catch lunch. Plus I know you love checking out the guys there." Out the corner of his eye he saw Sakura trying to fight down the redness that was starting to show on her usually fair skin.
"Oh my god, are you guys talking about the guys at the book store!" Once again Ino managed to barge in mid-conversation. "I think the girls there have completely the right idea - only hire the best looking guys to draw in the customers. Why else would you bother reading?" Both Naruto and Sakura rolled their eyes at the last comment.
"Even Naruto has something going for him I guess, if you like the scruffy bed-head look on a guy." Even though Ino was trying to brush it off, both girls had to admit that Naruto really was attractive. He knew it as well, but only because it was hard to be completely oblivious with the amount of attention he got. If his tanned skin, unruly blonde hair, and piercing blue eyes weren't enough to get people to notice him, his constant smile and seemingly carefree nature just made him so easy for everyone to get along with that it was hard to find any bad points to associate with the boy.
"Maybe you could set Sakura up with one of them." Ino suggested, suddenly the love guru just because she had been in a relationship for a couple of weeks. "I mean... there's Neji... or Sasuke. He's a bit older but still really hot. Are any of them single?"
"Come on Ino, I don't keep track on their personal lives! I'm pretty sure Neji was seeing someone but he's probably with someone else by now for all that I know."
"Not everyone's like you Naruto!"
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Naruto seemed genuinely shocked at what Ino was implying.
"You're out every night of the week Naruto, and you always seem to have a whole mixture of girls calling you up. Can't blame people for thinking what they do."
"People? What people? I didn't realise what I did with my time was such a hot topic of conversation." The blonde grinned at the two girls, obviously lapping up the idea of people showing such an interest in him. He was always one for attention. "Anyway, people are just gonna think whatever they want, let 'em!"
"Sure, sure. You just can't let it slip or else all your different girlfriends will find out about each other, then you'll be in trouble!" Sakura joked, or she at least hoped was a joke. He just smiled in return.
The girls gave up there, as they knew that was the most they would get out of him about anything personal. Both girls he would have considered as friends and Sakura especially as they had actually grown up together, but even she had no clue what the guy got up to. A few times she had gone out with him, or bumped into him at a bar or in the pub, and usually he was just chatting, drinking and dancing - nothing out of the ordinary. They found it fun to tease him though, and he always played up to that image without ever letting slip if it was true or not.
Only a few seconds after they had managed to steer the conversation back to trying to figure out what they were actually meant to be doing in class, the bell rang and clatter of people packing up their things filled the room.
"So, where are you off to tonight, or has hell frozen over and you're staying in?" Sakura mocked as they all started throwing books, pens and paper into open bags.
"Let's see..." He said as he pulled his phone from his pocket and started to open the few messages he had received while in class. "Green Dragon down town seems to the favoured option for tonight. That'll do for starters, then hopefully that'll lead on to something open a little later."
"Do you ever go home?"
"Not if I can help it!" With that, he flashed his trademark grin and ducked out through the classroom door.