So here's the setting; it's an Alternate non-ninja Universe (sorry guys) where they attend a regular school, get into mischief, fall in love, etc. etc.

Oh yes- and it's yaoi. What pairings? Oh ho ho...

...Chapter One :)

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Konoha Secondary: the prestigious boarding school which attracted applicants like moths to a beautiful light. Home to the best athletes and the brightest pupils, world renowned for excellence in music, drama and the arts. The building which now had green spray paint all over its fancy expensive bricks as the store had run out of black.

Naruto grinned and admired his handywork, Anarchism! Rock and Role! Even the spelling was perfect, he knew, because he'd checked it on Word first. Take that stupid, fun-forbidding, life-sucking, lame... school! Place. Naruto hummed what he thought was the tune to a song he liked and tossed the empty paint can in the trash, sauntering away with all the innocence of the world. The first time he'd done this he'd been so nervous that he'd run full-speed (and he was one of the fastest guys on the soccer team) all the way back to his dorm, knocked over a teacher and gotten another double detention. Iruka, his guardian and the unfortunate teacher who'd taken the spill, had scolded him for at least 20 minutes about being more careful in the hallways, people could and did get hurt, blah blah blah. Well, not this time. Whistling to show just how nonchalant he really was, Naruto skipped away wondering how he'd never thought of this before. No one suspected happy people! His laughter was cut short as he slammed into someone walking in the opposite direction.

"Oof! Sorry, man- didn't see you ther-"

"Tch. Watch where you're going, loser." The black-haired boy Naruto had nearly knocked over glared at him and stalked off. Rather huffily, Naruto might add.

His embarrassed grin now a frown, Naruto rubbed the back of his head and picked himself up off the ground. What a bastard.

/POV/

Sasuke was annoyed. Really, really annoyed. First he'd gotten up late because his alarm hadn't gone off, then he'd received an 82 on an English project. Now some stupid Blond apparently on drugs had run into him and crumpled his uniform.

"Tch."

Sasuke glared at the trees. It was barely November and they'd already lost most of their leaves. Or was that normal? Sasuke decided he didn't care, he'd never paid the seasons much attention anyway. Grades were the only thing anyone cared about anyway. Well maybe not, but they were important, his brother Itachi had excessively drilled that into his head at a young age. Okay, he'd talked about hard work and dedication but it was basically the same thing.

An 82! It was pathetic. He could score better in Bio in his sleep. Kakshi must have a grudge against him or something, just because he didn't get all emo writing poetry. Who cared about poetry anyway? No one read it, or no one normal at least. Yeah.

Sasuke paused briefly to unlock the door to his room, careful to stow his key back in his wallet. Some idiots didn't even bother which was exactly how stuff got stolen. Sasuke shook his head to clear it and sat down at his desk, not bothering to look around. What was there to see? His bed? The other bed for a roommate who didn't exist? Headphones on full-blast, Sasuke spent the next hour and a half contentedly studying the chemical structures of biological molecules and how they were involved in cellular processes.

covalent bonds... ionic bonds... "Tch." They'd done this stuff in grade nine.

allosteric site... substrate-enzyme complex... inhibition... That was more like it. As Sasuke read he took careful notes, bobbing his head when a particularly catchy song came on. This was why he loved having no roommate- he didn't have to worry about people seeing him. He had an image to maintain, after all.

Single rooms were so awesome, thought Sasuke as the boy stretched his arms above his head and leaned back, eyes closed. No one to bother him while he studied or to keep him awake at night with their crappy music or basically disturb him in any way shape or form. Sasuke grinned and began to turn around his swivel chair to check the clock on the opposite wall but stopped mid-way through. Oh no. Oh no!

What was some red-haired boy with dark eyes doing reading on the bed that was supposed to be vacant? Vacant! When had this happened! Sasuke quickly thought back to that morning- no good, he'd been too busy not being late to notice much of anything and the night before he'd gotten in late after a long student council meeting and collapsed on his bed for the night. Oh God.

Sasuke was too shocked to move so he ended up just staring at the boy in horror. His messy red hair, crimson actually, was shoulder length, his uniform was untucked as Sasuke's own while he was in what used to be the privacy of his own room and he was currently staring right back at Sasuke with a slight crease between non-existent eyebrows.

"...what?" His voice was deep but not too deep. Kind of nice sounding.

"Tch." Sasuke grumbled, suddenly recovering his senses. He had to get this sorted out fast. His room was his sanctuary! Surely it was too late in the semester to transfer in anyway. Yeah. Sasuke smoothed his appearance and took off for the principals office as quickly as he could while still looking cool.

/POV/

"... completely disrespectful! Have you no school pride? Or at least any sense? Naruto? Naruto!"

Naruto started and refelxively looked down at the green marks all over his hands which had given him away. It was just his luck that Iruka would just happen to see him walking away from a recently graffitied wall and put two and two together.

"Huh! Oh- yeah. Just- Iruka, I mean it was just one little-"

"You defaced school property! I let it go when it was just toilet paper in the boys' bathroom, but this is too much. Double detention." The blond-haired boy's legal guardian sighed. "I'm disappointed in you Naruto, you're better than this."

For a few minutes the two of them just looked at each other. Naruto trying to look repentent and Iruka trying to look angrier than he felt- it really was a harmless prank after all, and it wasn't as if Naruto had written anything obscene. But principal Tsunade was a proponent of the 'yell until they're too terrfied to disobey' theory and she would almost certainly do much worse than normal detention should she found out about Naruto's latest prank. Not that Iruka planned on telling her. Naruto wasn't a bad student, he got average marks in an elite school like Konoha high, but as an orphan, Tsunade had taken his schooling to heart and consequently, was rather more rough on him about 'keeping his nose clean'.

Naruto broke the silence first with a slow 'so can I go now?' to which Iruka waved him off and folded his arms. That was better. Angry looking.

Naruto slipped out of the office and gratefully tucked his hands behind his head, thanking his lucky stars that he'd gotten off so light. Unfortunately, he also closed his eyes as he did this and once again slammed into someone walking in the opposite direction. The same person, by the looks of the hurried glare he was currently receiving. The raven-haired boy left too quickly for Naruto to say sorry so the boy just picked himself up off the floor again and continued on his way to the cafeteria. They could patch things up later, even if the guy was a bastard.

The eating hall was usually open until seven and tonight was no exception. Naruto grinned as the smell of pizza hit him, and then wider when he recognized the trademark spiked ponytail of one of his friends face-down on a table, apparently sleeping.

"Yo, Naruto! Where've you been, man?" This from Kiba, the wild-looking brown haired boy who was seated next to Shikamaru, sharing a large plate of nachos with Choji. Naruto slid in across from him.

"Oh, Iruka was mad at me for some reason so I had to sit through another lecture. He talks, I tune him out and we're done." He explained, reaching for some chips with one still-green hand. "No biggie." His voice came out muffled though the delicious mouthful.

"Nice. You didn't miss much, we- ah, gross dude, chew your food." Kiba pretended to gag, looking around the cafeteria at the group of girls laughing at another table. The pink haired girl was play-mocking the blond one while a third girl with long dark hair and pale eyes watched and giggled through her hands. Kiba's eyes followed the last one slightly longer than the others before turning back to his friends.

Oblivious, Naruto shrug/grinned and swallowed this time before reaching for another chip.

/POV/

Gaara turned another page in the novel he was reading. The principal had warned him that his roommate might need some adjusting to but that boy had been downright strange, first ignoring him completely, freaking out like he'd just seen something horrible and then staring him down for no reason. Gaara briefly hoped that the black-haired boy (Sasuke?) wouldn't try and pick a fight with him as he was hoping to avoid another reputation as a bloodthirsty monster. Gaara frowned. It wasn't his fault that his father had forced him to take martial arts, nor that people tended to choose him as a target for his small stature and lack of friends, nor that he'd broken Dmitri's leg (it was an accident and he was perfectly fine after a couple months in hospital, though that didn't stop rumours saying Gaara had tried to kill him).

How did his siblings manage to stay popular? It had always puzzled him as they could be quite ruthless themselves. Whenever Gaara had lost a fight, purposely or no, Temari would sabotage any hope the guy had of getting a date and Kankuro would lead the other popular boys in isolating and teasing the poor guy, which would in turn make him a target for the rest of the school. Surely that was much worse than one broken bone. It may have been overkill for the offense but Gaara suspected it was partly in apology for their father's favouritism.

Gaara turned his thoughts back to Братья Карамазовы. It had been among his favourite as a child in Russia. Too difficult or boring for most young people, perhaps, but though Gaara's homelife hadn't been the happiest, his unusual intellect had blossomed under his father's watchful, demanding eye. There was never much encouragement but plenty of punishment if he wasn't the top of his class, sometimes in the form of bruises if the man'd been drinking. Their mother had died in childbirth and Gaara seemed to remember always knowing that his father blamed him for it. It was particularly obvious when his siblings received extravagent gifts on their birthdays while his own was generally ignored. Yes it was also the anniversary of their mother's death, but surely a simple cake would not have been unreasonable? It all felt distant now that he was in another country. Why bother holding a grudge over something that you couldn't change?

So how did his siblings manage to make and keep friends? Their father had also been an infamously ruthless, possibly corrupt, politician and yet people had only ever held it against his own character.

Perhaps he should make more of an effort to be friendly this time around? Gaara paused, thinking it might be difficult if was roommate was as neurotic as he appeared. Then there was that blond kid who kept talking to him during class, which might've been nice if the boy would shut up once in a while or if they didn't sit together in three of Gaara's four classes. How did that even happen? Naruto had plenty of his own friends so why was there only ever one empty seat next to him? Gaara's unspoken suspicion that someone had arranged it on purpose sounded ridiculous, even to himself. Who would have the influence or motivation?

/POV/

"But it's not fair!" Sasuke was coming dangerously close to whining as he tried to convince the principal to give him his room back which, as she'd just finished telling him, she had no intention of doing.

"Tell that to Gaara- tell him it would be more fair of me to kick him out of Konoha Secondary just so you can have the place to yourself. Better yet, why don't I just ask everyone else on the floor to leave? No," Tsunade shook her head, "I'm afraid it's out of the question."

"With all due respect, Mrs. Hokage, I merely-"

"Ms."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Ms. Hokage."

"Ah- My apologies Ms.-"

"Yeah, yeah," Tsunade snapped, feeling like it was a jibe about her age, "I have a lot of important paperwork that's needed urgently, so if you don't mind, Mr. Uchiha."

Sasuke bit his tongue. He wasn't ready to give up but recognized what a bad mood the principal was suddenly in and decided to save it for another day. Perhaps a small gift would help his case, Sasuke pondered as he bowed and excused himself. Flowers, chocolates... too romantic. A new paper weight?

Tsunade noticed Sasuke frowning and hoped he felt bad about bringing up her age. She knew it was childish, but she couldn't help it, being around high school age kids all day just made her feel old and she wasn't ready to feel old. She wasn't even married yet! Tsunade groaned and slumped onto her desk, summoning her secretary Shizune to her side.

"Tsunade?"

"Report."

"Of course. Monday, November 12th. Substitute tenth grade teacher acclimatizing well, Mrs. Belafont still out for another month. Classes-"

"No, no," Tsunade waved her hand impatiently, "The other one."

"Oh... " Shizune flipped to the back of her clipboard. "Right. Approved friend Gaara Sabaku successfully transplanted in all coinciding classes. Naruto unsuspicious. Took to him well, speak often. Teachers unaware."

"Good!" Tsunade said, startling Shizune as she clapped her hands together and sat up. When that scary Russian man had first brought the boy in she'd been less than impressed, he looked like the worst kind of troublemaker. But his grades were exceptional and one donation later he and his siblings were at the top of the waiting list. It had all worked out somehow as three other students randomly transferred to other schools (actually, it was rather strange but Tsunade didn't delve too deep into it) and the Sabakus were in. When Tsunade had a chance to interview them, however, she'd been pleasantly surprised. They seemed like very bright, kind individuals with pleasant facial features. The one in Naruto's grade had caught her eye in particular as someone who was well-spoken but spoke little. That was when she had begun to formulate her plan.

He would be the perfect friend for Naruto! A Wunderkind who the hyper-active orphan could look up to and depend on, as opposed to a lazy sloth, a glutton and a wild dog.

"Initiate phase two immediately." She instructed her assistant briskly.

"Yes Tsunade..." Shizune responded weakly. She really didn't think it was a good idea to meddle in the lives of students, but at least it had Tsunade enthusiastic about school again.

X X X X

Gosh I wonder where this is going... ;)