Title: Rush
Summary: Follow a few struggling teachers along with their equally struggling students on their journey to find what the true meaning of life is.
Main pairing(s): NaruSasu
Alternate Summary: Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are pre-med students. Their chemistry teacher, Hatake Kakashi, immediately takes a liking to them despite Naruto and Sakura not getting along so well with Sasuke. Follow these four, and a few other teachers and students, in learning lessons on and off the campus.*
Chapter summary: We meet the four main characters of the first part of this series and two supporting characters. Naruto and Sasuke butt heads their first time meeting each other.
Taking a deep breath, he opened the book to its first page and started to read.
Tried to read, rather. He could hardly concentrate on the contents of the first page.
Why was he doing this to himself? He must have hated himself or something. He always did this, it was sort of his thing.
He already knew this certain story had a bad ending, what with all of Gai's rambling about how terrible a book it was, so why? Why did he always take it upon himself to read a book with a sad ending if all it would do is waste his time?
It was a book that, on the surface, looked somewhat pleasing to the eye but beneath it all had a very dark undertone.
Looking at the clock on his nightstand, he sighed. He had wasted all of the time he had to read on thinking about pointless things he already knew the answer to. He knew why he did this, he just didn't want to admit it. Admitting it would mean admitting to what kind of person he was and he wasn't ready to come to terms with that just yet.
Sighing once more, he closed his book and put it in its proper place on one of the many bookshelves in his room. He had no time to waste on this book at a time like this.
It was the first day of class. His favorite day of the year. New students who most wouldn't care to remember the names of, but not him. No, he was different. Every new student was like a new book, waiting to be opened, broken, and fixed.
Turning on the shower, he chuckled to himself. Maybe he should have taken up psychology instead, his interests in others made him sound a lot like Asuma.
After taking a shower and somewhat de-stressing himself, he walked to his office room and gathered the materials he needed to put in his bag.
After gathering everything, he ran his hand across his desk.
In any case, as was usual on the first day of the semester, he felt sorry for his new students.
Lost in thought, he let his hand roam around until it landed on his name tag.
HATAKE KAKASHI
He gave a breathy chuckle.
The unfortunate brats were stuck with him as their professor.
"Raindrops, drop top…"
The blond teen woke up with a start, sweat glistening on his forehead and his shirt partially soaked. Tired, his arm searched for something under his pillow until it found it and pulled out a phone. He turned off the alarm and looked at the time. 8:45 am.
Shit.
If he took a shower and brushed his teeth, he'd be late to class, but if he chose to forego all of that he'd go to class smelling like shit. First impressions are everything, but would he rather have the impression of an irresponsible kid late to class on the first day of uni or a kid who doesn't care about appearances? He wanted to sit in the front, as close to the teacher as possible, and get on his good side.
He imagined the two scenarios that could happen if he went to class smelling bad or got there late.
"Uzumaki Naruto!" shouted the faceless teacher. The faceless students in the class looked back at the door to see Naruto smiling sheepishly and arriving to class 15 minutes late.
"You're late! But at least you look well prepared and nicely dressed. Don't make it a habit. I rarely remember the names of my students, don't make me remember you in a bad way."
or:
The teacher walked by the rows of seats, handing each row the semester schedule. As he walked by Naruto's seat, he stopped and scrunched up his nose. Reading the name on his notebook, "Uzumaki Naruto, is it?" Naruto looked up at the teacher with confusion written all over his face.
The teacher sighed and said, "Kid, it's not a crime to come into class late. However it is a crime to have the kids sitting next to you suffer because you couldn't get to class on time after taking a shower," The teacher pointed toward the kids next to him. Naruto looked around and saw them covering their noses and their eyes watering. "Next time, get to class on time AND don't smell like sewage."
Naruto's face turned bright red and the students that were close enough to hear the professor's words snickered to themselves. All Naruto could do was shrink back into his seat and wish he could crawl into a hole and die.
Naruto shuddered. He shook his head, trying to rid his mind of all the disastrous incidents that awaited him that day.
Fuck it, he thought, he'd just go to class late. He didn't want to go to class smelling terrible. His professor would understand, right?
Although, this wouldn't have been a problem if his dickhead roommates had woken him up… and if he had set his alarm to the correct time.
Roommates, huh?
As he turned on the shower, he thought back to his encounter with his new roommates the day before.
"Naruto!" shouted the bubbling pink burst of energy that said man called his best friend.
Naruto turned around and delight was clearly shown on his face. "Oh hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted back. "It's nice to see a familiar face here."
As Sakura caught up, she wrapped her arm around his neck and said, "You should have told me you were bringing your stuff to your dorm today. I would have helped you unpack. What kind of friend am I if I can't even do that?" Sakura crossed her arms and fake pouted.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Oh shush. I've already finished unpacking my stuff. Ero-sennin took time off work, though I'm not exactly sure what he needed to take off time from since all he does is write those stupid porn novels that no one cares about...," Naruto thought to himself for a second before shaking his head, "Anyway, I have everything taken care of. Besides, I didn't offer to help you so it wouldn't have been fair."
Naruto grinned, which earned him a quick jab to his stomach that sent him keeling over. "And you have the nerve to act like you're proud of that!"
"What… the fuck… Sa...kura-chan," spat out Naruto in between deep breaths. He quickly stood up and pointed an accusing finger at her. "You didn't even offer me any help beforehand! Today was your first time even mentioning that."
Sakura stared at him for a moment, clenching and unclenching her fists a few times, followed by a few seconds of just staring up at the sky, asking the heavens above why she's friends, let alone best friends, with this blond. After a moment of spiritual clarity, she reached out her hand expectantly. "Naruto, give me your phone."
Naruto stared at her suspiciously for a second, and then reached into the back pocket of his jeans and handed her his phone. Sakura typed in the passcode she knew by heart and seemed to be searching for something. The look on her face that followed told Naruto that she had found what she was looking for and he waited while she scrolled for what seemed like 2 minutes before handing him back the phone. "Read the messages."
Naruto lightly snatched the phone back and gave her a dirty look, still somewhat suspicious of what she was doing. With attitude, he looked down at his phone. "Dorm room… help… unpacking…," Naruto whispered to himself while he read the messages. From what he read, he realized that Sakura had, in fact offered to help. Not just once, no. Multiple times. He eventually looked up and his mouth formed an 'o' shape. "Oh."
Seeing that he was unable to say anything more, Sakura walked up next to him and patted his back. "Naruto, already taking Ls and classes haven't even started yet."
"Shut up…," he muttered under his breath which caused the girl to laugh at his childish behavior. "Don't worry about it Naruto, I'm not mad."
"My stomach says you are," he grumbled which elicited another chuckle from his so-called best friend. She waved him off and in an attempt to change the subject and lift the mood, she asked, "Have you met your roommates yet? Are they nice? Good looking? Sakura standards dating material?"
Naruto shook his head and sighed, feigning disappointment. "Tsk Tsk Tsk, Sakura Sakura, always trying to find a new partner every chance she gets," he said to which Sakura responded with a slap to his back. "Okay okay, I'll stop, so no more violence okay?" Naruto surrendered. Sakura nodded, obviously content with the power she had over Naruto.
"And no," Naruto continued, "I haven't met my roommates yet. Actually, that's why I was out here in the first place. I was the first person at my dorm. Jiraiya left so I was on my way to get something to eat and then head back to wait for everyone else. Wanna come with?"
Sakura shrugged and said, "Sure, why not? I don't have anything better to do." Naruto smirked and muttered, "Don't got any other friends either." Sakura glared at him and raised her fist, "Oh, really? Want a piece of my little friend here?" Naruto quickly shook his head and raised his hands, "A-ah, no, no. Put that down," he placed his hand on her arm and slowly pulled her fist down. "I'll shut up now," he said, zipping his lips with his hand and giving her an 'okay' sign.
Sakura cracked her knuckles and gave an evil sounding laugh.
Devil, Naruto thought.
After the two grabbed something to eat, they made their way back to Naruto's dorm room and were pleasantly surprised by two new faces that greeted them there.
Sakura knocked on the open door and one of the guys, who had a peculiar hairstyle that Naruto could only think of as a pineapple, looked over his shoulder at the new visitors.
He looked at between the two and then settled on Naruto. "You must be one of the unlucky guys that has to live with us," he said while holding his hand out.
Unlucky? Naruto internally shook his head, deciding to think about that at a different time, and shook the other guy's hand. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. This is my best friend, Sakura. She's also going to school here." Sakura gave a short bow.
"Nice to meet ya. I'm Nara Shikamaru, and this guy over here is my old pal, Akimichi Chouji. Been friends for a long time." He patted his friend's back, who turned around to see his new roommate.
"Yo, Chouji here. So I guess we're just waiting for the last guy to show up…," Chouji's voice trailed off as he looked at a crumpled up piece of paper in his hand. "Uchiha… Sasuke?" He looked up at the other three. "Do any of you know who he is?"
Shikamaru and Naruto looked at each other and shrugged. "Hmm… Uchiha Sasuke, huh?" Sakura looked deep in thought for a moment, and then it was as if a light bulb turned on in her head. Fist placed on her palm, she recalled, "Uchiha Sasuke from that famous Uchiha family! You know, that rich family! He's one of the two sons in the main family."
Without giving anyone a chance to respond, Sakura continued talking. "He's really cute! Here, look!" Sakura took out her phone, her deft fingers already searching for a photo online. She held up her phone for the boys to look at.
Shikamaru shrugged - shrugging seemed to be his thing - and nonchalantly said, "Still don't know who he is, still don't care. I'm already exhausted as hell so I'm gonna crash." He jumped on his bed, faced the wall, and immediately looked as if he had already fallen asleep.
Chouji laughed and said, "Don't mind him. He's just a lazy ass." He sat on his lower bunk bed and rubbed his chin seemingly deep in thought. "But now that I think about it, the name does sound familiar. I think my dad worked with the head of that family once in the past, but I was really young so I don't remember much."
Giving the picture one last look, Naruto ever so slightly narrowed his eyes and looked away. "Whatever. I don't care," he said as he sat down on a chair. Sakura sat down next to him and asked, "What do you mean?"
Naruto looked down at the foot that Sakura was using to probe his leg and said, "I don't know… It's just rich kids like him are the most annoying to deal with. If he's like every other rich person I've met, I don't think we'll get along that well. He might not even be as great as you're making him out to be, Sakura."
Sakura kicked his leg which resulted in hissing and cursing from a very much in pain Naruto. "I think you judge people too quickly, Naruto," Sakura crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "Besides, I don't think you should judge someone just because they're rich. You haven't even met him yet. Also, who cares what you think?" Sakura gave Naruto a smirk which he responded to with, "Hey, that's kind of rud-"
"Yeah, who cares what you think?"
Everyone in the room, including Shikamaru who was thought to be asleep, turned their heads at the new voice. What they saw there was a guy, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.
Shikamaru lazily rose up from his bed, interested in the scene that was playing out before him, and asked the million dollar question, "And who do we have here?"
Their new guest pushed himself off the wall and walked into the room with his bag, emptying the contents onto a bed that he decided to claim as his. The room was quiet as everyone watched him waiting for an answer. When the man realized that no one else was talking, he turned around to look at everyone with a small, barely noticeable smirk and asked, "Who do you think I am?"
Something about their visitor's voice really irked Naruto, and then he put two and two together.
"You're… Uchiha Sasuke?"
And that was the million dollar answer.
A/N: This story is loosely inspired by some tv shows, anime, and dramas I've watched.
I mentioned above that this chapter introduces the first four main characters (Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke), and that Shikamaru and Chouji are supporting characters, but worry not if you want more of the original konoha gang to show up. I intend to make this a 3 part series, I've (actually) planned it each series out. Some supporting characters in Part 1 may be main characters in Part 2 or Part 3 of the Rush series. Also, for you nejishika nerds, I plan to make them the main supporting characters of this series. Each part of the series is going to contain a time skip, and as Part 1 goes on you might predict why. Also, I'm not entirely sure whether or not I'm going to stick to calling this the Rush series, but it fits for now at least. I'm not exactly satisfied with the summary either, but we'll keep it like this for now and see how it is. Hope you enjoyed.
*Edit 1/21/17: I added an alternate summary that's a little bit more specific and kind of shows where I want to take this story. (:
