Hello everyone, and welcome to my new story 'The Sun and the Moon' and just like most of my other work is SasuNaru! I was actually going to bring this out much earlier during the anniversary of Naruto's birthday, but I still had a lot of tweaking to do on this chapter, and that's why this is late.
Not sure about the rating yet, but I'm keeping it at 'M' just in case. Also I would like to mention that I now have twitter and Tumbler, were I usually post up daily info on the stuff I'm working on. So if you want to keep in touch the links can be found on my profile page!
Beta read by the wonderful Kiya-chan!
Chapter one: A bad feeling
If there was one thing that 16 year old Uzumaki Naruto was certain of, it was that today would not be his day. He realized it as soon as he had woken up that morning, woken up late that is.
"Uzumaki Naruto, get your butt out of bed right now mister, or I'll throw you outside in your jammies," came his mother's stern voice serenading him awake.
The blonde jumped out of the bed, the covers tangling around his legs causing him to stumble and fall down face first with a hard 'thump'. He groaned and looked up at his glorious mother, who was standing by the doorway, arms crossed, long red hair cascading down her back, her steel blue eyes shining with amusement as she watched at her son in his struggle through his newest predicament.
"Good, now get dressed or you'll be late again," she finished and walked away, as if she hadn't just caused him to nearly break his nose.
With a sigh Naruto kicked the covers off him and stood up, wiping straightening his rumpled orange boss gamabunta pjyama's, they were awesome and he didn't care what his mother said. The blonde was more than ready to spite his mother and just go back to bed, when he caught a glimpse of his alarm clock.
"Shit, shit, shit," he cursed loudly, running out of his room towards the bathroom. Class started at 8.30, and it was already 8.
Naruto went through his cleaning routine at lightning speed, brushing his teeth, and washing his face, before running back into his room to get dressed. He got undressed on the way, throwing his dirty clothes in the hamper, before routing through the drawer for his favorite froggy boxers and put them on, before scrambling around to find the rest his clothes. The only thing missing was his tie, he always managed to lose it.
"Tie, tie, where are you…," he sang under his breath, crawling on his hands and knees searching under old clothes, fallen books and magazines. "Aha!" he shouted in triumph. Finally finding the lost piece of cloth under his bed.
The blonde hung his tie loosely around his neck, before grabbing his bag then before running down stairs. His socked feet skidding on the linoleum floor as he entered the kitchen. His father Minato was already there having his own breakfast, his younger brother Kurama sat in his high chair trying to feed his plush toy, a nine-tailed fox named Kyuubi, some of his mashed potatoes, while his mother was cooking by the stove.
"Hey there squirt," he said, ruffling his brother's bright red locks. The three year old giggled at him, reaching his potato covered hands towards him. Naruto skillfully pushed them aside and planted a kiss on his little brother's forehead.
"Good to see you finally up son."
He gave his dad a nervous look. Uzumaki Minato, was a tall man with the same blonde hair and sky blue eyes like him. While his little brother took more after his mother. "Heh, heh, yeah sorry. I missed my alarm. Mum I'm just going to take some toast, I'm late."
"I know," she said, turning around, handing him a wrapped box which was his bento and a piece of toast. "Now hurry up, I don't want to get another call from the principle about your lateness."
"Oba-chan called you again?" he asked, putting his bento in his bag.
She fixed him with a glare, while Minato bowed his head to hide his smile. "Get to school."
Naruto just gave his mother a wide grin, jumped to give her a kiss on the cheek before running to the front door to slip into his school shoes. He ran out of the door, closing the door behind him with a slam only grinning when he heard his mother shouting at him for closing the door like that. Naruto took his phone out to check the time, cursing when he realized that he only had about 15 minutes to get to school or get another late pass. Naruto attended Konoha high school in his first year, and so far things had been going pretty well for him.
He was what you could call the prankster; him and his buddies were the annoying but lovable troublemakers, something he took pride in very much. Other than that he was an average student, getting 'b' and 'c', friendly with all…all except one that it.
Uchiha bloody Sasuke, aka, the bastard.
Naruto could literally see that arrogant face smirking at him in his own mind. Uchiha was what most would call 'perfect'. He was tall, with paper pale skin and raven black hair that matched his eyes, and a personality that all the girls called 'broody', to him he acted more like a jackass. Naruto wouldn't deny that Sasuke wasn't 'handsome', in some terms, but his douchiness cancelled it all out. Overall Naruto couldn't understand why the female population worshiped the ground that guy walked on.
The blonde sighed munching on his half eaten toast absentmindedly, but stopped mid-bite when he heard a low growl from behind him. He cursed up a storm under his breath, thinking he must have stepped out (or rather fallen) off the wrong side of the bed to have such bad luck.
Now if Sasuke was the bane of his existence then this monster behind him was the antichrist. Slowly he turned around coming face to face with his biggest enemy.
"Hello Gato, I see Nimaru-san forgot to chain you up again…," now Gato was a large brown bull mastiff, who seemed to have a penchant for making his life miserable by chasing after him around its massive teeth ready to take a chunk out of him.
Hesitantly the blonde took a step back which only made the dog more agitated, its chops drooling as it continued to bare its teeth at him. That's when Naruto noticed how the dog was eyeing his toast, there was only one chance that he had to distract this hell beast, only one chance. He had to be quick. Quickly he threw the toasted bread right at the dogs face, and ran in the opposite direction, fearful at the snapping and gruffling sounds the dog was making. But it only bought him a little bit of time, since the dogs loud barks were getting close to him again.
He took a side street, jumping over a trashcan and continued to run. The dog was furious, he heard the loud clatter of metal falling as the dog obviously slammed into it. Making sure that his bag was strapped on properly he grabbed a fence and used it to help him climb over into someone's back garden, ignoring the scream of the housewife as he surprised the poor woman. Naruto kept on running, getting out of the residential area and only feeling some relief as he finally saw the school gates looming closer.
Might Guy, was the gym teacher and toady acting as the gatekeeper. He was a muscled man, wearing a tight green vest and even tighter dark green bike shorts. Two black caterpillar like 'things' replaced what would have been normal eyebrows, and fashioned a bowler haircut. The man smiled enthusiastically at him, showing off all his straight teeth that were blindingly white.
"Ah, Naruto doing some running in the morning, eh? How youthful of you!" the man called out happily.
Naruto just gave him crooked smile, and kept on running through the corridors towards his homeroom class. He burst through catching everyone's attention as he leaned against the wall panting. His homeroom teacher was a man named Hatake Kakashi, who had a penchant for plaid scarf's and not so secretly reading porn books called 'Icha Icha Paradise'. The older man had spiky grey hair that fell limply over his left eye, he gave Naruto a bored stare, tilting the registration folder down slightly.
"Just made it in time Naruto, get to your seat," he said in a bored tone, marking his name down on the paper.
The blonde nodded and staggered towards his desk slumping down into his seat wearily. God his body felt like it was on fire, his heart thumping so loudly in his chest he was sure that everyone around him could hear it. It took him a while to realize that Kakashi was speaking to the class again, so he straightened himself up and tried to keep his attention on the other man.
"So as you all know the Culture Festival is in just under four weeks, and our class was chosen to do a play," instantly a load of hands went up, but Kakashi ignored them and turned around putting his folder down and picking up a marker.
"Before you all ask the play has already been chosen we'll be doing a acting out a story based on a fairytale, that was also made into a Kabuki theatre, called 'The Sun and the Moon'," he said writing the title on the whiteboard. "I'm sure that some of you will know that story?" he asked turning back to his students again.
Nobody expect for one girl put her hand hesitantly up, Hyuuga Hinata was a shy girl with long dark hair which framed her slender face. She had the most stunning grey eyes, that seemed almost white in color that made her stand out.
"Good Hinata-chan, could you tell the class a little about it?"
Instantly a blush spread across the young girls face, she stuttered bringing her hands up protectively against her ample chest and fidgeting with her sleeves nervously. "Ano…well er… it-it's a s-story about a-a princess who is k-kept l-locked up by a s-s-sorcerer- and, and…"
Kakashi finally took pity on the poor girl as she struggled, and decided to stop her, he thought she might pass-out from all that blushing. "Yes Hinata, the basic story is about a beautiful Princess who had hair the color of gold and was locked up by a sorcerer who wants to marry her. Yet she constantly refused him.
He stayed with her every morning trying to talk her into marriage, giving her gifts and left at night. After he left the princess would sing about her grief and the one who would always hear her singing was a young farmer's boy who fell in love with her voice. The story goes that he always visited her when she was singing, hiding in a Sakura tree that was outside her window, until he finally got the courage to talk to her, and ask for her name, they fell in love."
Naruto could already tell that all the girls in the class were hanging onto his every word, with hearts in their eyes as Kakashi droned on.
"From then on the Princess didn't sing about her sadness anymore but she sang for him, and as days went on their love grew. He climbed through her window and they shared their first kiss."
The blonde couldn't help but cringe at the wave of 'sighs' from the girls and 'groans' from the boys that echoed through the room. Kakashi paused, arching his eyebrow as he looked across the room at his students. He coughed deciding to continue with the story.
"Problem was though that the wizard found out, in his anger he stormed the room where the two lovers were, attacking the farmer's boy and killing the man. The Princess in her grief picked up one of the presents the wizard had given her, a flute, that she shattered and plunged into her stomach to die.
The sorcerer who had truly loved her took her spirit and put it into the sky so that her beauty and golden hair could light up the sky. She became the sun, and then he died after using up all of his power. But the gods who had been watching the tragic scene sadly, decided to take pity on the two lovers. They took the farm boy's soul and turned him into the moon, and the two lovers would meet every solar eclipse," he finished.
By now all the girls had turned to a pile of goo on their desk, some had their hands raised eagerly, obviously going to volunteer for roles Naruto himself was utterly bored. He didn't even want to have any part in this damn play and completely zoned out only catching snippets of what Kakashi was saying, as he wrote the roles on the whiteboard. His eyes were fixed on a particular pink haired girl that sat at the front of the class next to bastard Sasuke. She was saying something, obviously wanting the role of the Princess. He couldn't help but smile, she would make a wonderful princess, she was so pretty and sweet the role would suit her excellently. But then his gaze dropped to the raven staring out of the window, and something reacted within him…
Sasuke might get the role of the lover… he might get the role of being the farmer's boy. What was he saying of course Sasuke would get the role, he was popular, what girl wouldn't want to be kissed by him? What if Sakura got kissed by him?!
"Sasuke would be brilliant for the role." he heard Ino call out, and this made him panic even more.
The group started talk all at once and Kakashi was mumbling something along the lines of, "But then again it may have to be 'traditional' so it stands out at the culture festival" but Naruto didn't catch that properly.
His mind was in utter turmoil. 'No, no, no, no, no' he kept on chanting in his mind. 'That couldn't happen. He would kiss her; he would get a chance to kiss Sakura!' Naruto couldn't let that happen. He wanted to be the first one to take her kiss, not that bastard Sasuke. He had to hurry; he needed to speak out now before it was too late!
"Alright then everyone, the role of the-"
"I'LL DO IT!" he shouted, standing up from his chair.
The whole room stared at him their mouth agape, eyes wide, even the normally impassive Uchiha Sasuke looked absolutely lost. Naruto smirked inwardly, thinking he had finally got one over that Uchiha. He looked from Sasuke to Kakashi-sensei who had tilted his head to the side in confusion. He scratched his cheek and gave a nervous chuckle.
"Er…are you sure?" the teacher asked.
"Of course," Naruto replied full of confidence.
Kakashi's right eye curved to show that he was smiling. "Okay," then he turned around to face the board again. "Alright then everyone Naruto has volunteered for the role of the Princess Taiyo, very brave of you Naruto thank you."
The blonde sat down, very happy with himself when he looked at the whiteboard and noticed were Kakashi had written down his name, and it wasn't anywhere near under the role of the farmer's boy. Sasuke's name was under there, not his. In fact his name was under the role of the princess', it took him a while to decrypt the writing on the board, as if it was some sort of ancient puzzle, and the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He was the Princess, his role was that of the princess, how the hell did that happen?
Kakashi continued quiet happily. "I know that many were nervous about the play being more like the traditional Kabuki where all the roles even the female ones are played were played by men. So I'm very proud that Naruto took such a bold step forward, and hope that all of you will take a leaf out of his book and follow his initiative," he said starting a slow clap; that soon everyone in the class joined.
Naruto wanted to protest, he was mortified. He wanted to shout and tear his hair out, but stopped when he saw the encouraging smile that Sakura was giving him. She looked so happy for him, that he pushed away the cringing sickening feeling that was starting to well up inside of him, and instead soaked up the claps and cheers directed at him with a wide smile.
It would only be during lunch time that he realized the full implication of what had happened.
"I'm so doomed…" he muttered, slamming his head against the table.
"Oh cheer up," said his friend Inuzuka Kiba, a grouchy spiky-haired brunette. He was just like Naruto in many ways, they both enjoyed a good laugh. But this was no laughing matter. "At least you have a proper role. I play some sort of dog…"
"That's because you look like one mutt-face," said a deep voice before a bread role was dropped onto the desk.
"Oi!" Kiba shouted, looking up at the new arrival.
A short messy red-haired boy sat down on the spare seat. He was an odd looking one, mainly because he had no eyebrows and had deep dark rings around his teal colored eyes, that he claimed came from his insomnia. Kiba thought it was make-up but never said a thing, since he was afraid that that the other boy would kill him. Yet the most prominent part of the red-head was the dark red kanji tattoo that was on the top left side of his forehead, just obscured by his hair. No one knew how the teen had gotten away with that, but he somehow had. His name was Sabaku Gaara.
"I do not look like a dog!" Kiba continued to rant.
Gaara only snorted and opened his packet. "Coulda' fooled me," he muttered.
Kiba gritted his teeth together wanting to say more but stopped himself, his sense of self preservation winning over this time. "You should be happy at least you also got a main role as the sorcerer."
The red-head only grunted and took a bite out of his bread roll. Naruto felt like weeping, Gaara hadn't even volunteered, Kakashi had simply chosen him, and he had simply given his usual grunt in agreement. Naruto wished he had been listening in class and not zoned out the way he normally did and now he was stuck playing a damn girl role, the princess no less! He wanted to be the farm boy. He wanted to kiss Sakura, not Sasuke-
Suddenly the blonde sat up straight in his seat, his blue eyes wide with fear.
"I have to kiss Sasuke!" he shouted out horrified at the torture he would have to endure.
Today really wasn't his day, and he didn't think it was going to get any better.
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