Rising and Shining

by Shameless Monkey

It is far too early to be alive.

The city has yet to completely remove itself from winter's grasp, and although the world at 6.30 is bright now, and the sun between the bright silver rain clouds is golden and streamy, the air is so chilling that Sasuke can feel his body shaking, and taste the bite of the wind within his very bones.

But he hadn't gone to school in two weeks, and so this morning, horrifically early, to make sure he is actually present (and doesn't get expelled), Itachi has brought him into school.

Unfortunately, Itachi's latest contract means that he starts work at 7.30, somewhere out west, and so he had pulled over on the side of the road and let Sasuke out a 15 minute walk away from his school, 2 hours too early.

And Sasuke feels like crawling up and dying.

Both he and Itachi are fairly nocturnal, and their pale complexions and the shadows under their eyes attest to this. But in some ways, Sasuke is more so than his brother, for while Itachi is able to stay awake all day, during the day, he is not. Sasuke sleeps most deeply when the sunlight is streaming in to his room in muted dusty shafts through the curtains, and the hum of the vibrantly awake world rocks him gently into oblivion, and naturally, being out of bed so early is nothing short of hell.

Briefly he deliberates about going up to school, but he knows it will not open for another good hour or two, when the caretaker arrives, and in the meantime it is just as cold as the streets. Wondering where else he can go, he realises that Naruto lives in this part of the city, not 30 minutes away.

But… Naruto is, in himself, a complicated issue. Over the past few months, they've drifted apart, and it kills Sasuke that it's happened, even as he knows that he's the one doing all the pushing. The problem is that he can't think of anything else to do. Naruto Uzumaki is his best friend. The self-proclaimed Genius Joker King of Konoha High. The one person who Sasuke is constantly aware of, even when he isn't there. His… crush.

It had sprung him, the way he feels about Naruto. Mostly he'd assumed that he hadn't met the right girl, but then all of a sudden, something inside of him changed, and Naruto had begun to play crazy games with his emotions, just by being near him.

Initially it had been easy to control the butterflies in his stomach, the heat that tried to flood to his cheeks, but it had gotten to a stage where he was dizzy just being close to his friend, because the urge to lean over and press his lips to the blonde's was overwhelming, and the fact that Naruto has been wooing a girl they know for years makes it clear to Sasuke that his friend doesn't swing that way, so he had decided to distance them. Just as a precaution.

It had been hard (Naruto calling him and emailing him and texting him and wanting to know what he'd done wrong while Sasuke's heart sort of ached in his chest), but it had been for the best; now, on this not-spring undead morning, Sasuke feels up to facing Naruto again, his emotions back under control.

(Or at least... this is what he tells himself)

With one final look towards the road up to his school, Sasuke slings his schoolbag over one shoulder and heads into the city centre.

End Chapter

Random Alternate Universe (I just clicked to what that means lol) short I wrote today, which decided to unfurl in my head into a short story. That is, if anyone is interested in reading it? If you are, please say so in a review! I write to get better at it and yeah. Would you read what I have planned for Naruto and Sasuke if I kept this going?

Whatever the case, thank you for taking the time to read this :)

Disclaimer: If I owned it, you'd be in for a wild time…