Summary: AU, highschool. Naruto pretends to be completely content, Sasuke pretends to be perfectly normal, Gaara pretends that he doesn't exist. They're not always 100 percent successful. Sasuke x Gaara, slight Naruto x Gaara
Disclaimer: I do not own characters from Naruto.
Warnings: Yaoi, boys x boys, AU.
Author's Notes: When I don't see what I want online, I have to write it. Usually I fail, but it's all good to try. And have people laugh in the process. Enjoy.

"Let's All Pretend"

by CloveeD

Prologue: Look Up

Because if I looked up, I would've saw the vast, limitless sky.

The roof has always been my secret hide-out. Above seven stories of classrooms and staff offices, here I lie flat on my back, letting my skin cool down along with the breeze that blew on top of the world below.

It's funny that one would call a small high school building one's world; but the truth is, we are all just kids waiting for our growth spurts to come. We only care about who in what class belongs to which group, who in what corner mysteriously does not belong anywhere, and who and who are having an indecent affair behind somebody else's back.

Our world, our habitat, is that small.

Of course, there are those who long for something more than this small world of ours. Like the sky. And what is beyond its thick blue veils.

Sometimes we call those people 'eccentric'. But really, who doesn't wonder? Who doesn't dream?

It's just that most of the time, we have so much to worry about around us, that the sky didn't matter as much as the four walls of our classrooms.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing up here?" Four voices can be heard, and if I'm right, it's the four famous physics fanatics from the class neighboring ours. They sometimes do some of the slightly more explosive experiments up here on the roof, in case the effects made a stain on the science room ceiling. "Lunch time is over. You better get to class soon!"

"Yeah, yeah, like you're not skipping yourselves..." I get up and stretch lazily. I hear a bone pop or two, and then leave with my hands in my pockets. I have an appearance to keep up - I am the famous school basketball team member, the tall, blonde, energetic jock of our class.

It's easy to look like a stereotype, therefore, I enjoy keeping the appearance up for those who look up to my athletic abilities (and, perhaps sadly, my hair color). People do realize that even when one is classified as a particular group, one is still allowed one's own uniqueness. One's own personality, wants and needs. Of course people know this, but they only remember this fact once every few school terms. Because it's easier to deal with people by giving them certain labels, so that the next time you talk to them, you don't have to think so much as to what exactly it is that they are thinking inside their complicated minds.

Everyone's complicated. It's just that without a narrator and a video camera tailing you, nobody takes time to notice that a jock can actually philosophize, a goth sometimes actually laughs out loud, a bookworm can dance tangle, and a skater can get A's on chemistry. But with this complexity, our small, small world held by four delicate walls could suddenly collapse due to information overload. Our world would become so tall, so wide, that we suddenly don't know how to deal with it anymore.

Thus, we bow our heads, and stay inside the classrooms, with our own little groups - because we like to deny that there is a sky above that ceiling over our heads. Because we're scared, that once life gets complicated, our adolescence society would become an adult world. And a good portion of us are not at all impressed by the adult world that we see today.

"Neji Hyuga."

"Here."

"Tenten."

"Hai!"

"Lee."

"GOOD MORNING SENSEI!"

"Kiba Inuzuka."

"Here...Oy leave my wallet alone!"

"Shikamaru Nara."

"...here."

"Ino Yamanaka."

"Hai, sensei!"

"Chouji Akimichi."

"Chomp-here-chomp-chomp."

"And can you put away the food until after class, Akimichi?"

"Yes-chomp-mame." Sounds of chips bag being put away in the drawer.

So we have a simple network in our class, B-12. Our teacher is a slightly anal retentive woman who nit-picks everything from our grammar during recess to the way we write numerical answers on the board. Although she appears to be single, it is rumored that she has gone out a few times with the history teacher in the past few months. Rumors are a big thing within the school walls. Once something leaks out, no matter if it's the truth or not, there would be ruckus about it for days or monthes, depending on how famous the object of the rumor is. If you want to stay famous and not infamous, you need to know how to control rumors around you, since you are constantly being watched by thirty-something pairs of eyes because you are the class star.

I don't mind being a class star, or being stalked by fangirls, or being slightly flashy about my sports talents. It's in my nature to like attention. I like being liked.

I play the basketball; I steal the ball from the hands of a player from the opposing team, and I score. Cheerleaders dance, audience cheer along, and I am loved by my surrounding teammates. I pick up a girlfriend from the Cheerleaders section, get whooted by the other guys on the team, hear the disappointed sounds of the rest of the fangirls, and I let the rest of the classmates think that Naruto Uzumaki has such a famous, successful life in highschool.

It's a simple routine. They only know that much about me, and I don't have to do anything extra to create any further prying about me from more curious of people.

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"Here."

Oh. Another simple thing about a small world, is that it's easy to show who's a buddy and a prick.

"Move over."

"Che, you move over." His dark, intense eyes glare back at me, as he sits perfectly composed on the seat beside mine. The tables in our school are arranged as pairs, and placed in vertical roles facing the black board. And yes, you guessed it, unfortunately, the Uchiha-bastard-of-a-perfect-student-and-student-council-president sits at the right side of our pair of tables. I'm almost tempted to date the teacher to convince her a seat switch once in a while; but I'm not really into nagging women with thick, rectangular glasses. And it would be sad for the woman from some mysterious moral point of view.

"Naruto Uzumaki"

"Here!!"

"As energetic as always, ne, Naruto-kun!" cooes one of the fangirls in my class. I give her a grin and a wink, and there are sounds of nose bleeds shooting in various directions and writing utensils falling onto the floor.

"Animal." Uchiha comments helpfully.

"Insect." I return the favour gratefully.

We don't keep scores. We just try to kill each other with glares and elbow nudges. He's really not a bad guy, that Uchiha-bastard, he just annoys the hell out of me for being so demandingly complicated. If he hated me through and through, there wouldn't be any complications between us. Like I said, I like to keep my social life simple, because complicated means extra effort. And Uchiha-bastard is a shining beckon for some incredibly complicated signaling.

I know of his history, because there was this once, on the roof, he had decided to tell the sky (the sky, because he was in complete denial that he was telling an idiot like me such important and private things) about how his brother was a mass murderer who had disappeared after murdering the entire Uchiha family (apparently, it used to be a humongous family of prestige back when this had happened), leaving only his little brother behind with some twisted provocation about revenge and hatred. It was big enough of a news that nobody in the country didn't hear about it, but Uchiha had managed to dodge the world long enough until some other massacres on the news steered the attention away from him. It all sounded rather like a big fantasy action movie to me at the time, but slowly, as time went on, we interacted, and I have come to understand to a certain level just how much he is truely effected by it all.

It is real. And it is a frightening realization that this kind of thing is reality.

And because it scares me, it is complicated.

After that, every time I bickered with the guy, I have to remember that there is at least ten other layers beneath all his behaviour, and that there are cracks and weak spots that are not to be stepped on.

Complicated.

And I thought one in the same class was already more than a handful.

Then, came Sabaku no Gaara.

...To Be Continued...

Author's End Note: Naruto POV, hmm. It's a lot different from most fandom Naruto characterization, but since this is AU, and my imaginery Naruto is one cunning fox, this is the end product. Remember to tell me what you think!