Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Master Kishimoto does.
A/N: This is alternate universe fanfiction. I placed them in very modern enviroment. This is eventual boy on boy/slash/yaoi story, so you have been warned. If you already feel disturbed, please leave now (altough there's no yaoi stuff in first chapter).
Reviews are always appreciated.
"Don't go yet, brother!" Sasuke knew he should remember something, but no matter how much he struggled, he couldn't find it in his head. "Brother!" he called one more time as he run after his brother. "I have to…"
"Vena saphena" said Itachi turning to face Sasuke, who only looked confused by the answer. "The word you're looking for, foolish little brother, is…" explained Itachi, but Sasuke couldn't hear his words anymore – the only thing he could hear was loud, beeping sound. Standing disoriented and alone in the middle of the street, he looked around trying to place where the sound was coming from. He looked down at his wrist and found himself staring at his watch not in the street anymore, but in his dark, unlit bedroom, where on the night stand laid the offensive piece. Sasuke silenced the watch and lit his night light, to see what ungodly hour was that. The hour hand was on the digit with round bottom and curved upper and the minute hand was straight to the roof. Sasuke tried to focus and gather his thought in some form of order.
"Kill me" muttered under his breath as his slung his legs off the bed, straightened the covers out of habit and dragged himself to the kitchen to start coffee machine and then to the bathroom for his morning routine. Every time he had to wake up so early, he was glad his face didn't have a lot of hair and it was growing very slowly, so he could shave in the evening and not bother with it for two to three days. Showered and half-dressed Sasuke went to the kitchen to pour himself his first cup of life giving liquid, all the while towelling his now only damp hair. Sasuke cringed inwardly at the thought of eating this early, but he knew he would not have time to eat anything sustaining for long hours, so he started the mini oven and made himself a toast with camembert on the olive and dried tomatoes bun with a touch of olive oil. The fact, that eating so early in the morning was revolting, didn't mean he couldn't at least eat something nice. Washing down the toast with another cup of coffee Sasuke cleaned up after his quick breakfast and went back to the bedroom to find his shirt and jacket. He looked at his hair and tried to comb it down in everyday futile attempt to force it down – he knew he'll fail, but Sasuke kept trying anyways, knowing the only thing that could prevent his sticking up hair is growing it long, and that was unacceptable because of his resemblance to Itachi.
Looking around his apartment once more Sasuke got his case, car keys and left. While driving to his work his thoughts went back to the strange end of his dream. He dreamed about Itachi leaving him often enough to not let it bother him anymore. But the thing Itachi said to him was vena saphena – saphenous vein, the one that goes behind of the knee. That was one of last words Sasuke read the prior evening while revising his new vocabulary for the job. Since his college days Sasuke rarely had dreams laced with words he was learning. To be fair, ever since he graduated philology course, he rarely had to cram a lot of new vocabulary – now usually it was a word or two he wasn't perfectly sure about. The learning part was major reason he took the job as consecutive interpreter on weekend osteopathy classes. Written translations tend to be boring affair, and being a nice interpreting accessory at the meeting, be them official, business or social, was simple annoying. He studied carefully given materials, so Sasuke was certain he'll do impeccable translation. The only thing he was not so sure was meeting a lot a new people in one go – students for whom he'll be translating, teachers – and it turned out in his weekend he'll translate at least four different people. He hoped they had nice accents and speak in coherent, ordered manner.
By the time he got to the school building he went through nervousness due to fear of accents of the teachers, calmness due to his will force and slightly anxious due to having to meet so many new people.
After entering the building he asked the secretary in the main lobby for direction. The young, strawberry blonde girl, Moegi as her name tag informed, looked up from her screen and stared at him. After a moment Sasuke cleared his throat to remind her that he wanted something from her.
"The direction to the school president's office, Miss?"
"Ah, yes, I'm sorry – you have to go through the corridor on the right, then the stairs up. The chairman office will be in the second floor at the end of corridor on the right." She threw her answer on one breath, more than slightly embarrassed being caught gaping. Sasuke thanked for her help and while he went as pointed, he had a feeling she was still ogling him. That kind of behaviour was one of the reasons he didn't like to go outside of his apartment much. Getting with no trouble to the right wing of the building, he passed few groups of people happily chatting around. It seemed they were catching up after holidays, and as most of them had their suitcases with them, they lived not in the close vicinity of the city.
That's good, thought Sasuke, I will not see them anywhere between the weekends when they have classes. As he kept moving some of the more outgoing people, mostly women, asked him whether he's new interpreter and after confirming, that yes, he is the new interpreter, he was repeatedly asked for which year he will be translating. His answer, apparently, was not what they expected, so he heard many disappointed sighs. He couldn't be more glad he was going to translate for the first years – from experience Sasuke knew freshman are more subdued than the rest of students, so he hoped "his" students will leave him as alone as possible.
Finally, after answering what seemed countless questions, he reached the president's office. The door was opened widely and Sasuke was soon greeted with a warm, bear hug from hugely built older man with long, white hair.
"You must be Sasuke Uchiha, our new interpreter!" said the man letting Sasuke go and allowing him to breathe once again. Nodding in agreement Sasuke extended his hand and soon he regretted his gesture – the man gave him most crushing hand shake Sasuke even felt in his life. "I'm Jiraiya Sannin, the president and chairman of the school, but please call me just Jiraiya. I'll introduce you to other teachers in a minute." Having said all that Sasuke watched as the man delegate some things to his assistant in what seemed to be very melodious German – Sasuke was betting it was Dutch. So the guy was in all probability Dutch, but his English, from what Sasuke heard, had nice accent – not too heavy and definitely not overly stiff.
The assistant was younger than Jiraiya, but older than Sasuke and had longish brown hair in a small ponytail. The guy nodded to whatever Jiraiya was saying, smiled at Sasuke and went do to his thing. By the time Jiraiya was ready to show Sasuke around, silvery haired guy in a mask barged into the office. He didn't acknowledge Sasuke there, instead started talking in that same melodious language as Jiraiya earlier. He got interrupted by the president in the Dutch, and then switched to English.
"Kakashi, I'd like to introduce Sasuke Uchiha, our new interpreter for first year. Sasuke, this is Kakashi Hatake and he'll be teaching techniques on practical classes."
Kakashi absentmindedly extended his hand and shook Sasuke's, but was already talking to Jiraiya, luckily for Sasuke in English. "Jiraiya, I told you having me as a practical class teacher is a bad idea, but what possessed you to give me Guy as an assistant?! Do you hate those poor bastards that much?"
"Kakashi, you're overreacting. It's not like you to be that emotional about anything." said Jiraiya with a sparkle in his eyes. "Well, except for my books of course." The man added with a wink. "Oh and here's Temari, she's the interpreter for the second year. Temari, this is Sasuke, he'll be translating for the first years. Now excuse me, kids." And with that last sentence Jiraiya was gone.
"I see" said Temari extending her hand and shaking Sasuke's. "Do you live nearby? If you need place to stay, you can stay at mine's." said the other translator, reluctantly letting his hand go.
"Thank you for the offer, but I live in the city, therefore there's no need to impose on you." This day was as bad as Sasuke feared. He was in the building for ten minutes and at least four women have hit on him and one even invited him to stay a night. Sometimes Sasuke wished he was more like his brother, who dealt with all the unwanted attention giving away his downright evil aura. Sasuke's cold detachment wasn't doing the trick anymore. Well, thought bitterly Sasuke, not now, and not ever.
Checking his watch and seeing he had only few minutes before opening lecture would be given, Sasuke asked Temari who will give the lecture.
"I believe it would be Tsunade or Jiraiya. Would you like to translate the lecture, or you'd rather have me or Shizune do it?"
Sasuke thought about it for a moment, and decided he'd like to listen first. He doesn't really need to warm his English for translating. "If you don't mind, I'd rather listen first to the teachers."
Temari smiled at him and nodded. "Then let me find Shizune and drop this pleasant news on her. Then we could talk a bit more before first real session." As she went away Sasuke looked into nearest classroom, where most of the students have already gathered, and the rest was walking up and down the hall. Sasuke couldn't wait for the session to begin – the faster they start, the faster the day will be over. As he was going into the class where the opening lecture will take place he was joined by Temari with some woman few years older than Sasuke. "This is Shizune, she'll do the opening talk." and with that she grabbed Sasuke's hand and dragged him into the back rows of the room. "Are you physiotherapist? "
"No, I'm regular philologist. What about you? Or Shizune, for that matter?"
"She's a physiotherapist, but I am just like you, philologist. Which one have you done? English, some other?" asked Temari, still watching around, as she was looking for someone.
"I've done English, French and German philology when I was at university. I've done Spanish as postgraduate."
"All of them in four years? I'm impressed." said Temari. Sasuke didn't find the need to tell her he lived in most of those countries at least for 3 years, so he knew the languages and history, so the only thing he needed to learn for his courses was literature, which he found rather interesting. "There's Tsunade at the front – the woman with blonde hair. If you're translating her, be careful not to stand too close, otherwise she'll be using you as her model for pathologies. And she's not overly gentle. Next to her is Jiraiya, he makes almost all his references and analogies based on sex – he says it's easier for the students to remember when topics are related to sex, but I think he's just a pervert. Shizune has very hard time translating him as she's not that comfortable with his sex jokes. Who else there is... There's Kakashi, I don't really know which course he'll teach this year – normally is something theoretical, so he won't have to walk or do too much."
"I met Kakashi already, and he said something about practical class and his assistant, Guy I think he was called" supplied Sasuke.
"Practical classes? And with Guy? Are you sure?" Why she was that shocked, Sasuke couldn't tell. Surely the man was a physiotherapist as well, so why it would be so bad for him to teach practical class? "Last year Kakashi covered neurology" continued Temari after a moment. By this time the opening lecture had started and Tsunade introduced herself and the teachers that were with her. Now she was starting to tell about the school and principles of osteopathy. "Well, to say it was boring as hell it's an understatement of the year. And Guy was doing the nutrition classes – he turned the driest material into some weird form of competition. Whoever lost in many of the "tests" had to do sit-ups or squats or push-ups. He's just crazy."
While Temari was incessantly talking, Sasuke took his time to watch every teacher in the room and then he looked around students. All of them were adults, and as this was postgraduate thing, they had to be at least twenty-three. Most of them was Sasuke's age and older. Tsunade was now talking about very basic biochemistry of human body and how everything is regulated by few compounds in the blood and cells. As she was about to sum up her short speech, the door to classroom opened slightly and Sasuke saw just a glimpse of mop of bright blonde hair before Tsunade halted her speech and dragged the man inside. "He's the brat I was talking earlier about." said Tsunade while keeping him steady in place by her even from a distance not so gentle hold of his ear. "This is Naruto Uzumaki, and he'll be covering anatomy and palpation." The said man smiled sheepishly and waved his hand in the general direction of the audience. "What was I saying?" The lecturer resumed her speech again, all the while keeping Naruto's ear in steel grip. "I forgot because of you, you brat. Then I'll just introduce the interpreter for the first year – Sasuke Uchiha, come forward, Sasuke!"
Not happy about having to go all the way to the front, yet obliged to comply Sasuke went and bowed slightly before the audience. He thought he saw the Naruto guy smile at him and wave a bit, but then the man was seized by another powerful grip on his ear. With one more sentence from Tsunade, they were free for next hour or so before next session will start.
- I wish you a very good year and see you in class. Dismissed!
A/N: I hope you enjoyed it. See you next time.