Best friends chapter 1

"Hey! Wait up!" I said to the new kid down the hall. He turned around questioningly, not knowing if I was actually talking to him or not, "Hey, you're new right? You're in my economics class second period!" He nodded at me but his facial expressions were blank, just like how they always were in class.

"Yeah, I am new here," He said continuing to walk, not paying too much attention to me.

"Well, I just wanted to introduce myself, I'm Naruto Uzumaki. It's just that when Mr, Fowler introduced you today, I thought I'd put it upon myself to become your friend," I said making sure to dazzle him with my award winning smile. I put my hands on the back of my head and walked with him, "So, you're... Sasuke? Right?"

"Hn," He grumbled.

"I'll take that as a yes since you didn't say no." I smiled and laughed a little. He was a little cold, but he seemed pretty cool, I mean he didn't seem like a dork or anything. I noticed all the girls in our class ogling over him, so I'm sure he won't be weird or anything. He was wearing these black skinny jeans with a pair of black boots that seemed like he had owned for ages now. And his shirt was dark just navy with a little pocket on the left side. And he was wearing this dark grey wind jacket that actually looked really cool. It seemed like he just put it all on not caring about what he looked like, and in that process he ended up looking really awesome actually. Almost like it was effortless. And his hair was awesome too, it was spiky, but not in a way that said punk, but more like Brad Pitts hair in fight club. He walked like he didn't give a fuck about what anyone thought of him, and maybe that's what attracted me to him. He seems closed and mysterious and I just want to get to know him more, I felt like he and I would make good friends.

He pulled out a folded piece of paper, that looked like his schedule. And being in a huge school like Konoah, you can get lost in it easily, "Do you need any help finding your next class?" I asked grabbing his schedule out of his hands I noticed his next class was AP Mathematics SL, same as me. I was a little surprised too because there's only ten kids in that class, well now eleven I guess. It was the hardest math class Konoah has to offer, only the best of the best are in that class.

"No I'm perfectly fine dobe, I can find my own way," He snarled back at me, ripping the paper out of my hands.

"Ah, well okay, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then!" I said as we came to the end of the hallway, forcing Sasuke to make a choice about whether to take a left or a right. Knowing he had no idea where to go, I took a right, and watched him as he was about to take a left. Ha, I knew it, "Hey Sasuke!" I ran to him as he was already halfway down the hall, he stopped in his tracks and was looking at a map, clearly confused about where to go, "You know, your next class is the other way." I said as I caught up to him smirking a bit.

"Hn, yeah whatever," He said, glaring at me as he knew I was right. He turned around and so did I, walking to our next class together, "What are you following me? Or do you just think I smell good today or something?" He asked as he realized I was walking next to him.

"We have math together, I saw when I took your schedule out of your hands. I wanted to see if you actually did know your way around the school, since you were being so douchey about it earlier. You know-," I said as I turned suddenly to walk into class. Sasuke kept walking, not knowing that our class was right there. I walked out and pulled him into the class, "-a simple 'thank you' is easy enough to say."

"Yeah whatever, thanks, dobe." He said as he took a seat in the back middle of the classroom. I grabbed a sheet of paper for him, that he was supposed to pick up on the way in, totally oblivious to it.

"Here, you need this," I said, putting the paper down on his desk. took a seat next to him and again he didn't say any thanks. The bell rang right after I sat down. During our lecture I couldn't help but think about how he could be smart enough to get into this class, but be so oblivious as to not see a sheet of paper he walked right passed. I guess he was more book smart than street smart. Our teacher started class, and droned on about our chapter right now about Calc Differentiation. This particular lesson was on Applications of the Natural Log. It was easy once he explained it once. It was a nice change of pace, usually I don't understand word about what our teacher says and have to watch videos about it at home. Our class was mainly self taught. Our teacher would give us packets of homework, and we'd watch videos that he made, teaching us about what we need to know for a particular lesson. It's called a flipped classroom, where we learn at night watching the videos (instead of normally doing homework at night, and at home) and then get to class the next day and do our homework there, and ask questions. It gives the teacher more time to answer questions instead of teaching us material. We'd have end dates when we'd need to have take test and quizzes by. And when you were ready to take a quiz, you'd do it during class. It was totally on your own, and it really helps prepare you for college. If you slack off, you'll be cramped, when it's nearing the end date for that unit, when you need to have taken all the quizzes by. But anyways, i guess today was different, instead of letting us do our own thing, I guess he felt like actually teaching us in class for a change.

I had watched to video for Applications of the Natural Log last night, and already knew what he had to say. So I couldn't help myself to daydream in class. I looked around the classroom, noticing everyone else doing the same thing, even when I looked at Sasuke he seemed disinterested, not that he ever seemed interested in much. He was twirling him pen in his hands very fast and I wondered how he did it. He had his chin resting in his other hand, and his eyes were only halfway open. I thought he'd fit in fine here.

The bell rang and to my surprise after Sasuke got up from his desk he asked me where his next class was. I told him it was on the other side of the school and that he'd need to run to make it everyday. Since he was new, no teachers would mark him tardy so I told him where his other classes were too. We had 7th period together too, which was the last class of the day, I told him where it was and said that I'd see him then and we went off to our next classes.

Third through sixth period passed quickly and when I walked into seventh period I saw Sasuke and decided to sit next to him again, "Hn I guess I do smell good today, you just can't leave me alone."

"Shut up! I'm your only friend here and you know it. No one else will put up with you shit, so you're lucky to have me," He looked at me with glaring, but knowing eyes. He couldn't refute that, it only being his first day here, and in such a big school he probably hasn't really met anyone else, "Oh, I'm right, aren't I?" A slight blush spread across his face and he looked down towards his desk, telling me I hit the nail right on the head, "Alright well, I'm not a jerk, so I won't be a dick to you. If you really don't have any friends yet, I'll be your friend." I said smiling at him, he didn't seem like a bad guy and I thought that his personality was so exactly opposite to mine, that we might just be great friends.

"Hn, don't think so highly of yourself dobe," He said, smirking back at me, regaining his composer from his blush earlier. So I guess that was Sasuke's thing then, he always smirked at me and gave me a little attitude.

"So is that like your thing then? Do you always smirk at people and give them attitude?" I asked, smirking myself now.

"Yup, pretty much." He and I both chuckled at that. The bell rang and Mr. Akiyama settled the class down and started our lesson on conjugating verbs.

The hour went by in a daze, and I had mastered twirling my pencil throughout my fingers in that class. Whenever I was bored n a class, which was far too often, I resorted to twirling pencils through my fingers. It was about a third of the way through the school year and I had already mastered three different ways of twirling. The bell brought me back to life, when the clock struck three. I packed up my bags, and headed out the door.

"Have a nice weekend Mr. Akiyama!" I said, waving him goodbye.

"You too Naruto, stay out of trouble!"

"Don't count on it!" I yelled back as I had already walked halfway through the door. Mr. Akiyama was my favorite teacher, and even though it didn't seem like it, Japanese was my favorite subject. We didn't really focus on learning the language as much as we focused on the culture and ways of life there, the language sort of came with it though. It was a different way of teaching, that I really appreciate and worked well with me. He often came to the coffee shop I worked at on Sunday mornings and sometimes, if my other coworkers were busy, I'd spot him a free drink.

I worked at a one of my town's local coffee shops, it certainly wasn't as big as any Starbucks, but there was an awesome atmosphere about it. None of the tables or chairs matched and it was attached to an art gallery and you could easily walk over and look at and buy art. It was an amazing place, the other coworkers pretty chill too. A few of us were close enough, that, once or twice a month we'd go out for some pizza and bowling. Although my pay could be a bit higher, I never complained, I was pretty content with it.

I headed to my locker and grabbed my jacket and coffee mug out of it, and started walking outside to my car. Ever since I started working at the coffee shop I've drank a lot of coffee. I didn't mind it, it tasted good and I was reliant on it to wake me up. I drank it because I wanted it, not because I needed it. As I walked through the doors to the school, a brisk wind hit my face and I was suddenly very glad to have brought my jacket even though it didn't keep me too warm. As I reached my beat up green 1995 Pontiac Bonneville, I unlocked the door and threw my coffee mug and backpack into the passenger's seat. I grabbed the duffel bag out of the backseat and locked my car and headed back inside for swim practice. I never liked to bring in my swim bag with me, because it was always too much t carry in the morning, I always have my coffee in hand, my jacket and backpack on, and anything else just made it difficult to handle. So I always just got it from my car after school.

I was glad to be out of the cold and in the pool area as I walked into the locker rooms. I have been swimming since fourth grade and was one of the best on my team. Swimming for so long has kept me in good shape too. I have abs that seemed natural and a very muscular back and shoulder. But it never seemed too big, like a bodybuilder. It all came from years of swimming which was amazing exercise. Although, I won't say I don't have big arms, because I do. I won't be ashamed to admit that I packed some pretty good guns. I was honestly proud of my body and the shape I was in. I was about 6'1' and weigh usually around 195-205 pounds. My build is naturally big, with wide set shoulders and long legs. I thanked swimming for the shape and body I had. Although I won't thank swimming for my hair. No matter what kinds of cleansing and clarifying shampoos I used, my blonde spikes always seemed like swimmer hair, typical, I guess. And the smell of the chlorine has become immune to me, I never smell like chlorine because I've been immersed in it my entire life. Swimming has also had an impact on my skin, I need to use lotion regularly to keep it from drying out. But swimming was like a second nature to me, I don't know what I'd do without it.

Practice was rough as usual, but today I think Mr. Sneedas, our swim coach, was in a particularly bad mood. He made us do 20 sprint 100's on the 2 minutes. And after that we had goal time 50's which was just like a cherry on top of a cake of hell, because that set was damn hard after those 100's. But other then that, practice was like usual. And at 6 o'clock I was in the dressing room, getting ready to go home for the day.

I got back to my apartment, unlocked my door, and fell on my couch. My apartment was pretty nice, but with only three rooms. A living room/ kitchen in about a 30x30 foot space. My room was pretty nicely sized though, it was about a 20x20 foot space, with a small walk in closet. And then a bathroom, in about a 10x15 foot space. My living space had a t.v. on the wall with a leather couch and a glass coffee table in front of it, and a nice reclining chair at an angle next to the couch. With a lamp on a little square table separating the couch and the chair. My kitchen had a little island table with some high stools, that I loved. As soon as you walked into the apartment there was a little 4 foot hallway with a closet on both sides. And the kitchen was situated in the right side of the apartment, looking as if you had just walked into the apartment. And the living area was on the left. My room was straight ahead when you walked into the apartment, again with another small hallway with a closet on the right and the bathroom on the left. When you entered my room, the bed was the in the center, with the headboard against the wall and a little table on the right side of the bed.

On the left side of the room, there was a set of glass doors that led out to a miniature patio outside. Although I was on the tenth floor of the apartment complex, and wasn't a big fan of heights, so I rarely went outside. My closet was on the right side of the room, with shelving on the right and left sides. Stacked with my clothes, that consisted of a lot of orange clothing. Orange was my favorite color and was spread throughout my apartment. My kitchen utensils were orange, my throw blankets and pillows for my living area were orange and my bedding was orange.

I lived alone, and have since I was thirteen years old. Both of my parents died when I was a newborn child, and my uncle took care of me. We lived in another apartment in this building, big enough for the both of us. But when I was thirteen he became ill and died from lung cancer that had metastasized throughout his entire sternum. I at first had an effect on his breathing and he developed a nasty couch, he went into the doctor thinking it was a mild case of pneumonia, but about a month later, he died. My uncle was the only person that I loved, growing up as a child I was more aware of the horrible things that the world do to you, and it affected me in ways it didn't other kids in my class. I was always different, never depressed, well that is until my uncle died, but always a little weird. I was always bouncing off the walls, and could rarely control myself or my emotions when I was young. But now, growing up alone for a few years, I've learned to control myself and mature. I've learned to accept death since I've experienced so much of it. People die and that's a way of life. I believe everything happens for a reason, and although I may not like the reason at first, I know I'll grow to learn and respect it. After my uncle died, the landlord of our building, who knew my uncle very well, has let me live here rent free for four years now. He's the closest thing I have to family now.

As I laid on the couch thinking about my uncle and the parents I never knew, my stomach made a loud grumble and I realized I was starving. I got up off the couch and walked over to the cabinet where I kept all of my ramen. I grabbed a shrimp flavored one, put some water in the cup and set it in the microwave. My doorbell suddenly rang and I went over to the door and saw that it was my Landlord.

"Hey Greg," I said as I opened the door for him.

"Good afternoon Naruto!" He brimmed, "How was school?" He asked.

"Same old same old, what's up Greg?" I asked.

He took a seat at one of the dining stools and my ramen beeped, I took it out of the oven and started to indulge myself, "Well, there's a new kid in the building, and he goes to your school. His name is Sasuke, and oddly enough, he's in the same situation you are. Both of his parents died when he was very young and he's moved here from Washington. Apparently, he lived with some family friends after his parents death, but now his Aunt wanted him to come stay with him. So he's here now, in this building. He's on the eighth floor and I'm pretty sure he's in your grade, I want you to go see him, I think he's in a difficult situation and I know that you could help him from what you've experienced. He's in room 416, I hoped you'd go and see him." Once he said his name, my jaw dropped. Wow, seriously that is one huge coincidence.

"Wow, that's so weird! I know him actually! I met him today, he's in two of my classes. I thought I'd introduce myself because it's such a big school and all, I didn't want him to be alone." I said.

"Well, that's great! How did you too get along?" He asked.

"Pretty good actually, I think we could be friends. What room was he in again? I'll go see him in a little bit" I asked, looking forward to talking to Sasuke more.

"Uh room 416, eighth floor again. Oh and Naruto, don't act like an idiot around him, don't just blurt out about his parent, let him tell you that alright?" Greg said more than asked me to do it.

"Yeah no problem, I'll try to bite my tongue."

"Good, now I gotta run, that bozo in room 124 go his toilet clogged again and he can't fix it." He said standing up and heading for the door.

"Alright see ya Greg! Good luck with that." I said laughing nervously for him, it'd suck to have to deal with that guy all the time.

"Yeah duty calls I guess, see you later Naruto!"

He said as he shut the door on his way out. I finished up the last bit of my ramen as I sat down on my couch and turned the t.v. on. There was a Law and Order marathon on that I wouldn't miss for the world. I loved watching Law and Order reruns. Only the original show though, I didn't care much for SVU or Criminal Intent, they had worse actors and the plots were poor, plus they focused more on the gore of the victim instead of the actual case a lot of the time. It was only 4:30 and I could feel my eyelids started to droop. I laid down on the couch and let the voice of Jack McCoy and Jill Hennessy lull me to sleep as the ripped apart a witness on the stand.

I woke up, opened my eyes and saw that there was no light coming through my windows, I turned my body away from the couch and read the clock that said 9:07, "Holy shit?! I slept for that long?" I said stirring myself up to a sitting position on my couch. Crap, I thought, I was going to go see Sasuke. What if Greg told him that I was coming? I couldn't just not show up or else he'd think I was a total jackass. But it was already getting a little late for visits. But I didn't want the guy to hate me, so I got myself up and washed the sleep out of my face and headed down the flights of stairs to his room number.

As I reached room 416 I knocked on it and about 20 seconds later, there was no response. That's weird, maybe he's out? I thought, but I wasn't going to give up on the guy that easily. Besides he didn't seem like someone who'd answer the door right away, I knocked a little harder. Still another good half a minute passed with no response. I banged on the door now, and to no avail. I was about to pound the door with my fists when Sasuke opened the door quickly.

"Geez what do you want?" He said as he was opening the door, before he knew it was me. He was soaking wet, his hair was dripping and his bath towel hung from his hips. His body was glistening with water, and I didn't get the impression that he was muscular at first but he had a nice body actually. I guess he was one of those people with secretly muscular and toned bodies, "What the hell are you doing here?!" He said, breaking my concentration on his body.

"Uh, I uh.." I hesitated and shyly put my hand on the back of my neck and looked away from him, did the man have no decency at all?! His towel was starting to get just as wet as he was, I mean he was practically popping out! "I uh, just came over to welcome you here... You see the Landlord told me you were here and wanted me to come welcome you.." A blush came across my face when he welcomed me inside.

"You can take a sat, I'll be right back I need to change into something." He said as he walked into a room that must have been his. His place was nice, it was smaller than mine, but had roughly the same layout except there were no closets or hallway when you first came inside. But his kitchen was the same as mine, and his living area was pretty cool. He had a bean bag chair, and some a comfortable couch that I was sitting on. He had a little nook in the corner of the room, there was a chair in the corner with a little table with a lamp on it and an ottoman. There were a lot of empty bookshelves. And in the kitchen there were tons of boxes. He had just moved here, so I guess he wasn't ite down with the packing. It was pretty cozy though, I like his apartment more than mine. I was like more "homey".

He came out of his room in a pair of black sweatpants and a black t-shirt, "So you know the Landlord pretty well then?" He asked falling down into his bean bag chair.

"Yeah," I said, turning around to face him while making myself a little more comfortable, "He's a family friend and I've known him ever since I've moved here. He told me about some new kid that moved here that goes to my school, and I told him that I actually knew you and I'd come visit you." I said looking around the room.

"Oh I see, are you hungry at all? Want anything?" He asked.

And myself, not a person whose necessarily humble, of course said yes to food. And Sasuke and I got up and went to the kitchen, I sat on one of his stools, and he grabbed some pizza out of the fridge and put it on the island. He set the oven to 400 so he could heat it up in there. I noticed inside one of the boxes that was on the ground next to me was a Pink Floyd record, "You listen to Pink Floyd? I asked taking the album out and looking it over.

"Yeah, Another Brick in the Wall is my all time favorite album. It tells a story, it's not just a variety of songs which is what I like about it so much." He said. Sasuke was pretty cool, I loved Pink Floyd, even though it wasn't really popular for anyone in my age group anymore.

"Same, I love to album too. Got a record player so we can listen?" I asked.

"Uh yeah I do, it's in my room though, and it's pretty heavy so I'll need some help carrying it out here." He said as we both got up and started walking to his room. His room color was a dark tanish brown, it was like a shade or two darker than caramel. It went really well with the brown furniture and the reds that covered his room. There were boxes everywhere, still from unpacking. His walls were covered with poster for The Police, Nirvana and Pink Floyd. It was awesome, everything went o well with the colors and theme or his room. Hie bed was on the left side of his room, where he also had the balcony, like mine. There was about a four or five foot gap between his bed and the doors, but it still looked good, even if it was an odd place for a bed.

"I'm still unpacking, sorry about the mess." He apologized as he dragged the record player out of a pile of boxes.

"It's fine, I get it, moving is annoying," I said as I grabbed the record player and helped get it out into the living space.

"You know you didn't have to come over right? I mean it's already like 9:45." He said as he looked at the time.

"Yeah I know. It's just I was planning on coming over earlier, but then I fell asleep. I woke up at like 9 and thought I'd better still come over. I didn't know if Greg, who's the Landlord, I didn't know if he told you I was coming over or not and I didn't want to just want to not come over in case he did, and I didn't want you think I was a douche or something…"

I said nervously. Truthfully, I could've come over any other day, but I kind of wanted to get to know him more. He was really cool and I wanted to hang out with him.

"Oh well, I guess you did it all for nothing, cause I already think you're a douche." He said smirking at me mischievously.

"Wait, really? I've been nothing but nice to you! I just wanted to make you transition here easier for you!" I said, getting worried that he actually didn't like me. Although I saw a smile spread across his face and I knew we were going to be great friends, "You're an ass, you do know that right?" I asked, punching his arm.

"Oh yeah, I've known that for a few weeks now actually." He said smirking at me this time. The pizza buzzed and we went into the kitchen.

"You know this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship," I said as I got the pizza out of the oven and set it on the island.

"Not if you say it like that, dobe." He said.

"Don't call me that! I hate when people call me a dobe!" I said, sounding a little whiny.

"Well I call 'em as I see 'em, if you're a dobe then there's no reason why I shouldn't call one." He got some plates out for us and grabbed some glasses too.

"Oh c'mon teme! Don't call me it!" I pleaded with him.

"Shut up, dobe." He said as he placed the glass in front of me and got out a bottle of something and poured me a glass.

"Is that sake?" I asked.

"Yeah, why? You don't drink?"

"Well I mean, I have but not regularly, really only if I'm at a party or something. But I'll take some now!" I said, taking a sip of the alcohol.

I ate some pizza and was already on my third glass of sake when I asked Sasuke about his parents, "So what happened to your parents Uchiha? They died? And where's this aunt of yours?" I barely even spurted the words out. He was about to take another sip from his glass, but glared at me when I asked him that and set the glass down lightly on the table.

"I don't like talking about that, in fact, it's late and you need to leave."

He stopped me in my tracks, and even in my clouded mind of judgement, I knew I shouldn't piss him off anymore, "Sorry I brought it up, I guess it was the sake talking. I'll be on my way then I guess." I left without another word spoken between us and got back up to my room at one in the morning. When I opened my door to my apartment, I headed straight for bed and crashed there. The last thing I remembered was the pounding headache starting to rage in my head. I was just glad I knocked before it really came in.