Right! second story, this time Naruto-world. I posted the first one 2 days ago, so my betareader is still lost in Africa. Any way, I hope this story is to your tastes, and if there are any horrifying mistakes, they'll eventually be modified out. (It'll go faster if you tell me about them though)
summary: Orphan Naruto finally gets a change at real life, and he feels obliged to be the best person he can be. That is of course, before he meets Sasuke, and finds out that boy can get on your nerves pretty quickly.
disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Sasuke would've come back by now.
warnings: there's a lot of bad words in here, but I'm sure all the kids here have already said them themselves. (ergo, nothing worse than bastard and stuff)
Being the new kid in a high-school is never easy. Especially so if you happen to be Naruto. He went to a lot of different schools already, and most of those schools thinks he's a delinquent.
Naruto is just a small troublemaker though, pulling a little prank here and there, but nothing that's really bad enough to get expelled. The real reason he went to so many schools, is that he's an orphan with a really big streak of bad luck concerning his foster parents.
The state has decided to send him to a boarding-school for the last 2 years of his school-career. The school is called Konoha High, and it is owned by Tsunade.
Tsunade already has a full-time inhabitant as a student, and that kid's a bit of a loner. She thought that taking in a second charge would help the boy open up a little more.
The Foster Care Society will look over Naruto's behaviour and grades, amongst other things, to jump in as soon as there's a sign of things going wrong. Naruto believes they should have done so sooner, but who is he to judge an established community supported by the state. Plus, his past can't be changed even if he pointed their flaws out to them, so Naruto simply doesn't bother.
The trip to Konoha High is a long and uncomfortable one. His guide is an asocial prick that's wearing sunglasses on a very cloudy day, and he doesn't seem to speak English. The silence annoys Naruto to no end, because he's nervous as hell.
This is the first time he'll know what having a good guardian feels like. He's hoping he won't screw it up with his crappy social skills or his fondness of pranking. He wants to be the perfect kid this time, to be worthy of the care he'll be given.
That's why Naruto made a deal with himself: no pranking and no slacking off in school. If he can do that, his guardian won't think there's something wrong with him and send him to a shrink or a special institute or something.
If he's perfect and happy, nobody will ask questions about his past, because Naruto is sick and tired of talking about his crappy past. It was crap, yes, now shut up.
The pranking will be hard to live without, because life is just boring if there's nothing like that. Naruto just hopes his room-mate is an interesting guy, and preferably smart, because Naruto is going to need all the help he can get to keep his grades up.
When 3 large buildings get visible behind a hill, the guide opts to break the silence.
"That's where we're headed. Clean up."
A rush of anger comes over Naruto, and to keep his mouth shut, he crosses his arms and looks the other way. Who the hell is this guy? He doesn't say a word for 3 hours, and then he says a simple line in a cold, pretty much dead voice.
When he's a bit more in control, Naruto mumbles; "No need to go all prison guard on me, you arse."
The guide chuckles. "You would know all about prison guards, wouldn't you."
Naruto turns around with a glare, and the guide is looking at him with a smug smirk. Naruto simply growls and looks outside again. He's not going to ruin this new start already because there's a prejudiced prick that's getting on his nerves. Hopefully, not everyone is like this guy at the school.
Finally, they arrive on the school-grounds, and the driver stops in front of the first and largest building. There are a lot of kids saying goodbye to their parents in front of the building, and it hurts Naruto to know that he'll never have that. Naruto stays in the car, until his guide roughly opens his door for him.
"Get out punk, I have better things to do." Naruto huffs and gets out with an attitude.
"Yeah, like getting rid of the ugly sunglasses since it's WINTER, you dumb-ass." The guide looks like he'd attack Naruto, if it wasn't for a woman clearing her throat behind them.
"Naruto? I'm Tsunade, your new ward. Ebisu, you are dismissed."
She looks smugly at the guide, and winks at Naruto. When the car has speeded off, Tsunade fully turns to Naruto and gives him a once-over.
"Sorry about that guy, I couldn't let anyone else go away on the day the students arrive. I hope he didn't give you too much trouble?"
Naruto looks at her searchingly. "Jiraiya said you were an old hag, but you sure don't look like it."
A vein starts throbbing on Tsunade's brow, and she clenches a fist. Naruto can practically feel the aura of rage shimmering around Tsunade, and he prepares himself for an outburst.
"That annoying perv! I'm going to kill him when he shows his face here again!" Naruto can't help it, he starts laughing.
"What are you laughing about, little brat!" With a little effort, Naruto can stop laughing to glare a bit at Tsunade.
"Don't call me a little brat, you old hag!"
The face Tsunade sports is legendary, and Naruto starts laughing again. Tsunade actually growls at him for that, and she flicks her fingers against his forehead.
"I'll call you whatever I want if you're going to act like that! Now get inside, brat!"
Still laughing, Naruto grabs his bags and follows Tsunade around the large building. She explains what all the big rooms are for, and then she takes him upstairs to the attic. They stop on the top of a stairs, in front of a door.
"This is your room. You'll have a room-mate, Sasuke, that will tell you where the mess room is. Food will be served in an hour, so get settled in, and I'll see you downstairs."
With a grin, Naruto opens the door. "Thanks, old hag!"
Naruto rapidly closes the door to shut Tsunade out, and it works better than he expected: Tsunade's tantrum is almost completely inaudible now. Wondering at the soundproof door, Naruto looks around the room.
The heavy supporting beams give the room an eerie quality, and the style his room mate has doesn't do anything to improve it. Sasuke's side of the room is done in dark colours: a black bedspread, a dark wooden desk, a dark blue carpet, etcetera. The only bright colour that's present, is the red and white fan that's painted on the wall above his bed.
"Great, a weirdo as room-mate."
With a sigh, Naruto looks around the rest of the room. The room is divided in two by a large TV surrounded by black (go figure) couches. The other side of the room is pretty bare; just a bed, a desk and a dresser. They're all in the same heavy wood as Sasuke's desk, but Naruto can see it's not a lost cause yet.
He can brighten up the room if he can find the effort. Naruto doesn't feel like doing anything in particular right now, so he just drops his bags on the empty bed, and let's himself fall down next to them.
About half an hour after Naruto entered the room, a second door opens. Naruto looks over, and locks eyes with the boy. He's towelling his hair dry, and the only thing he's wearing is a towel around his hips. The boy stops his movement and stares at Naruto for a while. When Naruto doesn't look away, the boy pulls the towel of his head.
"Do you mind? I have to get dressed." Naruto turns beat-red and turns to face the wall.
"You could've gotten dressed in the bathroom, no need to get all bitchy."
"Hmph. You're not supposed to be here yet. I wanted to be gone when you arrived."
That makes Naruto look over in anger. The boy is dressed now, in a black T-shirt and a tight jeans, and Naruto mentally yells 'EMOOOOOO'.
"You're supposed to show me to the mess hall."
The boy humphs again, and takes out a pot of gel without a word. He goes back into the bathroom, and when he comes back out with his hair done up in spikes, Naruto has calmed down a bit. He extends his hand towards the boy, and introduces himself.
"Let's try again. I'm Naruto, nice to meet you. You must be Sasuke." Sasuke just looks at Naruto's hand, before turning around and putting his gel away.
"Don't care."
He grabs his bag and simply leaves the room, leaving Naruto to seethe at a closing door. After a while, Naruto simply gives up waiting, and he goes downstairs too.
Naruto is starting to understand why Tsunade wanted Sasuke to escort him around, the place is huge! When Naruto turns a corner, and finally sees another person walking there, Naruto is relieved.
"Hey! Can you help me out?"
Naruto yells and runs to catch up with the guy. The other guy has this shaggy look about him, but he smiles brightly at Naruto when he catches up to him.
"Sure, what's up?"
Naruto explains about shitty Sasuke ditching him and how he lost his way. His stomach announces it's presence, clarifying just what Naruto is looking for. The other guys laughs at that, and starts leading the way.
"You must have the worst of luck, to have Sasuke as a room-mate. He must be to most antisocial person in the world! But all the girls fawn over him for some retarded reason, and he probably thinks he's a superstar or something. I'm Kiba by the way, and who are you?"
Naruto instantly likes Kiba with his 'I-don't-like-Sasuke'-attitude, and the conversation starts flowing easily. When they arrive in the mess hall, it's already as if they're best friends. Kiba leads the way to a small table that's already taken.
He seems to know the people, because he introduces Naruto as the new kid. After that he gives a round of introductions: There's a sleeping Shikamaru, a snacking Chouji, a haughty Neji, an overjoyed Lee, and a gloomy Gaara.
They all great Naruto in their own distinct way, and Naruto waves at them happily. He never expected to be making friends so soon. It will surely help in avoiding a shrink, if he seems to be popular.
Kiba and Naruto excuse themselves to go grab some food, and when they return, 3 more people have joined the table. Kiba greets Sai, the only boy, but before he can greet the girls, the pink-haired one has already jumped up.
"Naruto? Is that you?"
It takes Naruto a second to recognize the girl, but when he does, his face lights up.
"Sakura! It's been ages!"
Naruto moves to give her a hug, but Sakura sucker-punches him before he gets the chance.
"You ditched me! I finally agreed to go on a date with you, and you never showed up! You didn't even come to school any more! I thought that serial killer got his hands on you, you bastard! Did you know how much that hurt? I thought you were dead for over 4 years!"
Sakura isn't exactly quiet with her tantrum, and everyone in the close vicinity is looking at them with raised eyebrows. Naruto looks at them uncomfortably, before grimacing at Sakura.
"Yeah... My guardian at the time, he... wouldn't let me go out. And after that I was send back to the orphanage, which was too far away from the school to keep going there... I didn't mean to hurt you or anything, I just had no way of getting in touch with you... so, I guess I'm sorry..."
Naruto hopes it's not too obvious that there's an entirely different story behind what happened, because he's definitely not willing to tell the entire story. It seems he's in luck, because Sakura let's it slide and smiles at him. With a hug that means so much more than simply 'I forgive you', Naruto and Sakura make up. When Sakura lets go of him, Naruto grins.
"I still need to take you on a date though!" Sakura mockingly hits him over that.
"Not in a million years, idiot!"
After that, everybody settles down to eat dinner and chat about random things. Eventually, the conversation turns to who's roomed with whom, and Kiba starts laughing at Naruto.
"Naruto just got the worst deal possible! He's new here, and he's sharing with Sasuke! They're staying in that windy attic."
Sakura and Ino start protesting, saying that it's the best deal anyone could hope for, and they start listing of the supposedly good sides of Sasuke. After that, they start planning 'accidental' meetings with Sasuke in Naruto's room, pretty much always ending in Sasuke falling madly in love with one of them.
It freaks Naruto out to no end, and he looks at Kiba with a horrified look. Kiba laughs at him, again.
"Yeah, I told you the girls all fawn over him. You'll just have to deal with it." Naruto looks at the girls this time, but they are blissfully ignorant of them.
"But Sasuke's an asshole!"
Sasuke seems to be a magic word to the girls, because they immediately pay attention to Naruto. He's not happy about it, because saying Sasuke's an asshole equals in 2 fists on top of his head.
"Don't call him that! He probably just had something else to attend to." Naruto wants to argue with that, but he is stopped by Kiba's whisper.
"Just give in or they'll go on forever."
Naruto grunts out a fine, and focuses on his dinner again. After the meal, Kiba helps him find his way back to the attic, and then they split ways. Kiba will wait for him at the staircase, so Naruto can be certain of having a guide with him tomorrow.
Sasuke doesn't turn up until late in the evening, and when he sees Naruto watching TV, he hisses. Naruto turns around to wave at him happily.
"Hey, Sasuke! They're showing Iron Man on TV, wanna watch it with me?" Sasuke glares at him while grabbing his nightclothes.
"It's 11 PM, I'm going to bed." Without any further attention to Naruto, Sasuke goes to bathroom to get ready for the night.
"Well, I'm going to watch it anyway!"
The sound of the movie keeps Sasuke from sleeping, but it doesn't stop him from pretending to be asleep. When the movie finishes, Naruto doesn't turn the television off. It annoys Sasuke, so he drops the sleeping act.
"Hey idiot, the movie is over, go to bed."
When Naruto doesn't move, Sasuke gets out of his bed with every intention of forcefully putting Naruto to bed. Sasuke falters in his determination when he sees Naruto already sleeping on the couch. He's curled up on one side of the couch, shivering a bit.
Completely defused by the sight, Sasuke sighs. Instead of kicking Naruto out like he planned, he grabs Naruto's blanket of his bed to cover the boy up. After that very uncharacteristic nicety, Sasuke turns off the TV and can finally go to sleep.
The next morning, Naruto is roughly woken up by a yelling Kiba.
"Naruto! Wake up, lazy-ass! We're going to be late! Your asshole of a roommate let you sleep in."
Naruto doesn't want to be late on his first day, so he turns frantic enough not to notice the blanket or the fact that he slept on the couch. He runs around, grabbing all the stuff he's going to need as quickly as he can, with Kiba laughing at him all the time. Naruto curses at him while hurrying.
"Dammit, Kiba! You're always there laughing at me instead of helping out!"
With a lot of laughing and yelling involved, the boys finally arrive at the classroom in another building. Naruto couldn't grab any breakfast, with Sasuke being an arse and not waking him up.
As it is, they're just in time to get seats assigned by their home-room teacher, Iruka Umino. Naruto sweatdrops at the thought of assigned seating, since with his luck, he'll be seated next to Sasuke. He's right of course, but the good thing is, Sakura is on his other side.
Naruto takes this chance to ask her out again. Not because he still has a thing for her, but because he likes the way she tries not to smile when she denies him. Sasuke snorts out a laugh when Sakura refuses emphatically, making her look at him weirdly. It seems that everyone is so used to a stoic Sasuke, that even the slightest reaction of him stands out. After that short interaction, Iruka calls for attention.
"This year, the school-theme is 'Future'. Before we can look at the future, we have to know what our past means to us. As you can see, I put you all in groups of three. Those groups will stay the same for the entirety of the year, to promote new friendships to form."
Naruto raises his hand, with a horrified look on his face.
"I will not change the groups." Naruto deflates instantly, and lowers his hand.
"The first assignment will be to find out any similarities between you and your group members, like hobbies, or traits. I'll give you guys a list of questions to help you out. The goal here is to figure them out, write them down, and give them to me next week so I can see you're making an effort. Any information you find out during or because of this class will be strictly confidential, so if I find out you're gossiping about any of your colleagues, there will be consequences."
Iruka gives a stern look to everyone in the class, but he looks to nice to really make it a threat.
"Now you can all start to get to know each other better."
All the groups get only 1 paper, and Sakura decides to be the scribe this time.
"Okay, first question: what is your family like?"
Sakura looks at Naruto, and pulls an empathic face.
"Right, I'll go first. The only family I know are my parents, because they moved to America before I was born. They're originally from Belgium. I guess they're kind of nice, but they are parents, so they tend to get on my nerves anyway."
With a smile, Sakura looks at Sasuke. Sasuke in turn, looks at Naruto, who humps and goes next.
"I don't know my parents, because they died when I was a baby. And now I don't really have a family, because the school director is my guardian."
Sakura asks about where he lived before he came to this school, but Naruto evades the question. "Oh, I've been everywhere and nowhere really, nobody worth remembering or something."
Everyone stays quiet for a second after that, and Naruto becomes touchy because Sasuke keeps staring at him. Eventually, Naruto has had enough, and he asks Sasuke a question.
"So, Sasuke, how did your parents raise you to be such a bastard?"
Sakura gasps, and while Sasuke glares at Naruto, Sakura prepares a preach. Before she can actually launch into a full blown monologue though, Sasuke answers Naruto's question in a cold voice.
"They're dead." The cold tone really should have been a warning for Naruto to back off, but he's ticked off by Sasuke's glare.
"How did they die?" The glare deepens, but Sasuke still answers, although now in a low, angry voice.
"None of your concern."
Glaring is really disastrous for Naruto's goodwill, so he keeps asking. This is supposed to be a bonding exercise anyway, so Sasuke is obliged to answer his questions! At least, that's how Naruto sees it, completely disregarding the fact that he evaded Sakura's question before too.
"A car crash?" Sasuke snorts.
"Cancer?" Another snort.
"An overdose?" This pushes Sasuke over the edge, and he crashes Naruto head against the desk with a smack. With full blown anger written all over his face, Sasuke hisses into Naruto's ear.
"Listen well, you moron. My parents were not useless lowlifes like your parents were. They did nothing that led to their deaths. They were murdered."
With Sasuke still in close proximity, Naruto can easily grab Sasuke's arm and reverses the roles. Naruto has just enough time to speak to Sasuke in a low growl.
"Like mine did anything that led to their murders, asshole."
Naruto would've said a whole lot more, if Iruka didn't snap out of his daze at that moment. Iruka simply hadn't expected Sasuke, of all people, to get into a fight in his classroom, so he doesn't feel too bad for letting the boys go on as long as they did. As it is, he pulls Naruto off of Sasuke, and orders Shikamaru and Chouji to escort them to the principal.
With Sasuke and Naruto being as quiet as they were, the only other person that knows what they said is Sakura. She's completely shellshocked by this revelation of the boys, and it makes her see everything they ever did in a new light. Ino is alone now that her groupmates are off on an escort-mission, so she decides to talk to Sakura.
"What did Naruto do to Sasuke? He better not have hurt him, or I'll kill him!" That makes Sakura look at her with wide eyes.
"Ino... I think we're in way over our heads concerning Sasuke..."
Usually, Ino would've thought Sakura crazy for giving up on Sasuke, but something in her eyes tells Ino she's not kidding. Instead of acting like a gossip and asking what she's talking about, Ino simply gives Sakura the hug she desperately wants.