Word Vomit

Re-posted because FF made a major error in deleting a file.

Disclaimer - Naruto and all its characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto.

Kakashi looked up wearily from his textbook from where he had been explaining phrases in English.

A "tick" sound had broken his concentration and disturbed his speech. It was not the tick made when something is placed on the wood of the desk or the irritated tick sound produced when teeth and tongue click together in annoyance; it wasn't even the tick of those fancy hairpins that Sakura and Hinata wore.

It was the tick.

The tick of a pencil breaking.

He eyed Sasuke tiredly and then looked down at is book mentally marking the page before closing it with a snap. This had to be the sixth pencil broken since the past three days.

Three days since their seating arrangements were changed and Naruto had chosen a seat four seats away from Sasuke. That Kakashi knew Sasuke could live with but he knew what gnawed at Sasuke's insides and made him bloodthirsty.

Four seats ahead of Sasuke, and right beside Naruto sat Hyuuga Neji – the star of the class; Hyuuga Neji who had recently developed some sort of a short-term memory loss and was often forgetting to bring his textbooks to class. As a result, Naruto had to share his books with the long-haired asshole. Neji who sat so close to Naruto that Sasuke knew that any slight movement would cause their elbows to touch or their knees to brush.

No Sasuke wasn't jealous of Neji or anything. Heck, jealousy was something that so below the Uchiha standards that if someone suggested the word for the Uchiha's, they'd be mocked on the face and stared at so bad that they would wish to die!

It was the hungry look which Neji shot Naruto all the time that made Sasuke want to punch Neji's teeth into his throat and gauge those lust – filled lilac eyes of the scumbag.

Something had to be done about that temper, Kakashi decided with a mental nod.

"Sasuke," he began, choosing his words carefully very well aware that Sasuke's temper was on a tight leash these days, a very tight leash judging from the scowl on the boy's face. Any outburst from the boy could lead to destruction – not the end of the Earth or someone's life destruction – but destruction of school property and Kakashi was in no mood to listen to Principal Tsunade's deafening screeches; "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Sasuke eyed him with distaste clear in his scowl. "I don't feel well,' he said, his voice devoid of any emotion.

The way Naruto's head whipped around to glance concernedly at Sasuke was not lost on Kakashi.

"Oh," Kakashi spoke without a shred of concern. "Are you hurting somewhere?"

Sasuke gave him a look that said 'you-mean-apart-from-my-heart?' "Yes, my stomach is aching." He didn't even have the courtesy to fake a pained expression.

"Would you like to visit the nurse's office?" Kakashi asked now going back to opening his book

"Yes." Sasuke said and he walked four seats up and grabbed Naruto by his arm dragging him out of the classroom.

Now, Kakashi decided with an inner smile going back to the lesson, peace would prevail.

Naruto had sensed something was wrong. Sasuke had recently become extremely short-tempered and testy. He would snap and scream at every little thing and wore a constant frown on his face.

It made Naruto angry as well as confused. Confused because as best friends he couldn't figure out what was bothering the Uchiha and angry because when he asked, all he received was a furious glare and a "Hn" which made him want to hurl something at the dark-haired boy.

When Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm to go to the nurse's office, he had expected Sasuke to take permission to allow Naruto to accompany him but Sasuke had done no such thing and Naruto had stuttered apologies to their teacher as Sasuke dragged him out.

Once they were outside, he jerked his hand away from Sasuke's and began walking ahead of the Uchiha. Behind him, he heard Sasuke's call to wait but he ignored it too angry to care.

Fine, he thought, if Sasuke doesn't want to tell me his problems then I don't care, either.

He heard Sasuke running behind him, a second later Sasuke caught his wrist, and they were heading towards the washrooms.

"What the -" he began in confusion, but shut up when Sasuke glared at him. He yanked his wrist away and rubbed at the soreness. "Why the fuck did you bring me here?" he asked in plain annoyance. Then he lifted his wrist and raised his eyebrows in anger, "What the fuck was that for?"

Sasuke averted his eyes and blushed, causing Naruto to frown. "Sorry," he said.

"Sorry?" Naruto asked throwing up his arms in exasperation. "You've treated me like shit these past days and all you can say to me is sorry? Look Sasuke," he licked his lips, "I don't know what's wrong but whatever it is that's gnawing at your insides, please don't take it out on me, okay? I'm tired of trying to understand you and your mood swings."

He gave Sasuke one final stare and moved to get out of the washroom.

At the last moment, Sasuke caught his arm. "Don't go," Sasuke whispered in desperation.

Naruto just shot him an irritated look and pulled out his arm from Sasuke's grip. He heard Sasuke take a deep breath behind him.

"I love you. I love you, okay? Fuck I've been in love with you since I don't know when!" he took a deep breath to control himself and Naruto turned to look at him.

He watched Naruto open his mouth to say something but held up a hand. The words were bubbling inside him and he just had to let them out right now.

"Okay I fell in love with you when I turned seventeen and you gifted me a motorbike and no I didn't fall in love with you because of the bike. I love you because you don't treat me like some whiz-kid who tops all his classes. It was because you treat me like a special person, like your friend. Because you're always doing little things here and there which may have seemed insignificant to you but mean the world to me. We've always sat together in class Naruto but now you're sitting next to Neji and I hate it. I hate the way he forgets his books and has to study from yours because then he has to sit next to you so that your knees can touch and his hair tickles your cheeks. I hate the way he looks at you while he writes down notes in your books. Can't you see he's hitting on you? He gives me these high-handed smirks because he knows how I feel about you and because he knows that his touch on your skin makes my skin crawl and all I want to do is knock his teeth right into his throat. I hate it Naruto, I hate it because you're mine, mine Naruto, mine. And you know I don't share what's mine. " Sasuke was trying hard not to cry but treacherous little tear drops kept running down his cheeks.

There he'd said it. Each raw feeling was out in the open like word vomit. He panted and sobbed pathetically while Naruto watched in some kind of a stupor.

The silence stretched between them taut and aching. It killed Sasuke to watch Naruto look at him as if he was demented. He tried to control the sobs and the shudders that wracked his frame with each breath he took.

Finally, when Naruto seemed to have digested all this news, he looked at Sasuke. "So the reason why you've been behaving like this is because you're jealous?" he asked uncertainly.

Sasuke squelched the urge to flush Naruto's head in the toilet. After squeezing out every ounce of courage, he possessed in confessing, he couldn't believe Naruto had the guts to call him jealous. "Wha- what?" he stuttered disbelievingly.

"You know Sasuke, you're really stupid." Naruto grinned at him and crossed his arms across his chest. "I thought you'd have figured it out by now but you're really thick. I like you too, you dumbass!"

That took a weeping Sasuke completely by surprise and he peered up at Naruto in shock. "What did you say?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and crept forward. "Of course I like you! That's the reason I worked two part-times to buy you that bike you fool! And as far as Neji is concerned, I had absolutely no idea that he harbored such feelings for me." Naruto scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "I'm sorry if that upset you Sasuke. I'll be sure to keep my distance from him from now on." He bit his lip when a thought him. "Oh and as far as writing notes on my books is concerned, I really owe him for them. He's pure genius and I really apprecia-"

Naruto never got around finishing that sentence because the next second Sasuke had grabbed him by the collar of his blazer and was kissing the life out of him.

Naruto smiled into the kiss. He moved to get his hands in place as Sasuke took him towards an empty stall.

When Sasuke cupped Naruto's crotch, he was already hard. "Eager, aren't we?"

Naruto opened his trousers and grabbed Sasuke to kiss him again. "You bet."

To say Kakashi was happy would be an understatement. There was peace again and no more pencils were being butchered in his lesson.

Miraculously Neji's memory loss regarding books had cured and he brought all his books to class. However, Naruto still sat beside him but Kakashi had noticed that now Neji and Naruto rarely shared a word between them.

He smiled gaily at his class and looked down into his book when Neji raised his hand. "Yes Neji, what is it?" Kakashi fought the urge to tear his book. He hated disturbance in class.

"Sensei, I do not have a pencil. May I borrow one from Naruto?" he asked slipping his glasses up his nose studiously.

Kakashi checked himself from groaning and nodded instead.

Kakashi watched as Naruto pulled out a spare pencil from his bag and held it out to Neji. Neji made sure to grasp Naruto's hand and let it slide against his during the exchange.

He bent down to look at his textbook and pretended to study a verse from Midsummer's Night Dream waiting patiently.

Sure enough, three seconds later, he heard the distinct "tick" of a broken pencil.

The End