A/N: Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Welcome to my second try at a serious fanfic for those who are new to my writing and for those who have decided to read more from me!
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The room smelt faintly of new products along with the scent of something old as the boy got dragged through the door. He struggled as the two men pulled him through the doorframe to the front of the desk in the middle of the room. He was pushed down into a chair and held down when he tried to escape. He shoved their disgusting hands off of him as he settled to look at the elderly man on the other side of the desk.
He held a kind smile with his eyes closed while he rested his head above his folded hands. He seemed to peer at the boy, sizing him up before he begun to talk.
"Naruto-kun, I have brought you here to offer you a place as the pitcher on my team." The old man smiled and it seemed to make the boy even more suspicious of him.
"Who the hell would accept that?" The blonde muttered as he shoved his hands into the big pocket on the front of his sweater. He shifted his fierce blue eyes away from the man's gaze. It unnerved him; it was like the man knew what he was thinking.
"I've seen you pitch before and I say you have the talent." The elderly man said trying to urge the boy to accept the deal. The blonde stood up suddenly only to get shoved down by the men beside his chair. The old man lifted a frail hand as if telling them to back off.
"Forget it. I refuse." The blonde said harshly as he glared angrily, like a beast locked up. The man sighed and the smile finally fell off the man's face.
"I was hoping that you would agree to this by yourself but I guess that won't happen." The blonde looked at the man confused, going over the words in his mind. What did that mean?
"I'm sorry, my lad, but your father has already signed the papers. You're opinion in this matter doesn't count or have any value." The blonde stood up angry, his fists clenched at his sides, the men by him were tense and on guard as the chair toppled over behind the blonde.
"That bastard." He whispered. It wasn't soft. It was let out with barely restrained anger. He looked up suddenly to the man to explain the situation.
"This is just a way for my father to make me work for him." The blonde said seriously like it would make all the difference in the world but Naruto knew that endings weren't meant to be happy.
"I'm sorry, the contract's already signed and your father has already paid a large amount of money for your place on the team. I hope to work well with you, practice starts at eight a.m." The man said placing a smile on his face, albeit sadly but tried to brighten the situation anyway.
"Fuck that." The blonde said as he kicked the chair out of his way and shoved the two men away from him. He slammed open the doors and walked angrily with a stomp while kicking and throwing stuff on his way out. The elderly man smiled sadly hoping the best for the boy for he knew of the boy's problem.
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Despite what the blonde had said, he still showed up to practice. From across the field, he could see his new teammates and he approached them with a heavy heart. It seemed like he dragged his feet.
"Hi." A voice came from beside him and he glanced at the man beside him from beneath his baseball cap. Naruto choose to ignore him and continued to walk towards the dugout, leaving the man behind him in the dust. Once the guy realized that he was being left behind, he quickly caught up.
"I said hi." The man tried again, looking for any form of greeting. The blonde continued to ignore him but this time the brunette kept at his heels.
"Are you deaf or something?" He asked obnoxiously, angry that the newbie was being disrespectful. The blonde let out a sigh that was nearly inaudible but the brunette still heard it, thanks to his acute hearing.
"I heard you; I just didn't want to answer you." The blonde said flatly and left the brunette behind as he stepped into the dugout. The other players looked at him and then back to the brunette who was instantly fuming.
"Hey Kiba, is that the new pitcher?" A player asked from swinging his bat. The brunette watched the small back of the blonde leave through the door.
"No, it's just another arrogant prick." He growled out and picked up a bat only to swing it in the air viciously. Some of the players stepped back a bit but then a raven-haired man got up from bench to talk to him.
"Maybe he's just nervous?" He asked.
"Doubt it." The brunette said. "The look in his eyes told me otherwise."
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The blonde looked at his locker. It was a little rusty but it held his name and uniform. He pulled out the uniform and eyed it in distaste. He placed it on the bench to change. As, he pulled off his sweater, a raven-haired man came through the door.
The blonde stopped for a split second but then disregarded him and continued changing. He pulled his uniform top over his black undershirt and slipped his pants down his legs to where he kicked them off of his ankles.
He pulled the white pants up and fastened them together with a belt. He watched the raven change his clothes too, as he buttoned up his shirt and then stuffed it into his pants. Picking the cap off the bench, he was prepared to leave but the man's voice stopped him.
"Hey, I'm Sasuke, I'm the catcher." The man said fully dressed as he followed the blonde out of the room. Naruto looked at him but didn't say anything. He didn't care, didn't want to know about the other people. They weren't players, they were just people. They meant nothing to him. He would play this game his father was starting but he would win in the end.
"I'm hoping that we can work well together." The raven said with a smile but then it disappeared as he watch the blonde leave him behind.
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The blonde sat in the dugout, watching the other people but refused to participate. The raven, Sasuke, approached him and sat next to him. It didn't seem like the blonde minded, but then again he didn't say anything.
"Hey, what's your dream?" The raven asked suddenly asked out of the blue to strike up a conversation while he geared up.
"Dream?" The blonde asked in wonder. The raven smiled slightly, happy that he got the newbie to talk.
"Yeah." Sasuke said trying to encourage the boy like he needed it, but in reality, the blonde didn't, he just chose to not talk to the people who were beneath him. But he decided to humor the raven.
"I don't have one." He said finally and the raven looked skeptical.
"Come on, everyone has a dream. Even I do." The raven said as he placed shin guards on his legs.
"To be free." The blonde said as he relaxed a bit more. The raven looked at him in wonder as to why he would answer like that. Didn't this kid have a dream?
"No, I meant something that you want to accomplish, something that makes you happy." He said trying to explain what he wanted to know. The blonde looked at him then and said his dream clearly and seriously.
"To be free, that is my one and only dream."
A few moments of silence passed over them, only the sounds of a bat hitting a ball through the air were heard.
"Dreams…are ridiculous. They never come true, especially mine." The blonde said and it just left the raven speechless. Did this kid have nothing to live for?
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"Hey wanna throw a few pitches?" Sasuke asked the blonde who was just sitting there, bored. The blonde looked up at him with a blank look on his face but then shrugged nonetheless and got up. He corrected his cap and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket.
Over to the bullpen, the blonde checked his footing and stretched a little until he started to throw the ball up and down in the air to relax him. Some of his teammates noticed what was happening and they wanted to know how good this pitcher was considering that he was going to be the new ace.
They gathered around, relaxing and getting comfortable while watching the blonde pitcher intently. Naruto stretched his fingers over the ball in his glove to get a grip while Sasuke crouched down. He settled on a pitch after Sasuke gave a sign and he threw.
It was nothing special, in fact, it had no speed. It had nothing, it was an ordinary toss. It was almost like he wasn't taking this seriously. Sasuke was surprised so he thought that maybe the blonde wasn't warmed up enough. He tossed the ball back to the blonde but the same pitch got thrown again.
The other team members were shocked but then began to crack up and make fun of the slow blonde.
"Haha, I thought he was an arrogant prick but he has no speed!" Kiba said as he laughed.
"Ha! He's nothing special. He's got nothing."
"This is supposed to be our new ace? He sucks!" Were the laughs and shouts of the players. Sasuke didn't know what to say, he thought that judging by the blonde personality, maybe he was just insecure about his pitches. But this was beyond what he thought, this kid had nothing. How were they supposed to win if they had a crap pitcher?
Sasuke then remembered that he had once heard that pitchers had delicate feelings and he tried to stop the outbursts of the other players.
"How'd he even get chosen? I bet he paid his way in!"
"Yeah, I heard that his father is the owner of this famous company!" A player shouted, causing the others to make disgusted looks at the blonde.
"Hey, stop guys. That isn't nice! However he pitches, we'll win the championship!" Sasuke said making some players snort while others backed him up. The players began to file out of the bullpen to go warm up for their game but a certain brunette stuck around awhile longer, although a bit concealed.
"Hey, be ready for this one." The blonde said as the raven seemed to be elsewhere. The raven looked up and nodded sheepishly. But he didn't have anything to worry about, this kid had nothing. The aura seemed to turn a bit more ferocious as the blonde gripped the ball.
Kiba watched from behind the netted backing behind Naruto as he watched him wind-up. The blonde tossed the ball, and the pitch was thrown making a loud smacking sound to Sasuke's glove. The raven looked incredulous while the brunette looked more than shocked.
The blonde smirked at the raven and gestured his glove to Sasuke who quickly tossed the ball back to Naruto. Suddenly the blonde switched his glove to the other hand and Sasuke stood up, trying to see if this was really true. The blonde wound-up again as Sasuke sat down and he threw the pitch.
'A knuckle?!' The brunette thought from behind the netting. He was shocked; he didn't know this kid had this kind of speed and pitches. He ran back to the dugout and tried to tell the other players, but they wouldn't believe him.
'An ambidextrous pitcher?!' Sasuke thought incredulously like he couldn't believe it. Naruto just smirked at him like he knew what he was thinking.
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Their first game together as a team went horribly wrong as Sasuke and Kiba realized that Naruto had no intention of pitching seriously thus, making them lose the first round of the pre-season game.
While Naruto pitched lousy tosses easily for the other team to hit, he refused to pitch any of the signs Sasuke told him to after the raven knew what kind of pitches he could throw. The outfield was desperately trying to catch most of the hits while most of them became homeruns.
When they went back to the dugout, at the end of the game, the score was twenty-two to five. The angriest person was Kiba, who everyone knew was fiercely competitive. He threw his glove down onto the bench angrily as the other team packed up. When the blonde came into the dugout looking completely bored and had even the nerve to yawn, Kiba exploded.
"Why the hell didn't you pitch the knuckle?! Do you know how hard it is to hit one of those?! We would have won!" Kiba yelled in anger and the blonde narrowed his eyes, silently asking how the hell Kiba knew he could pitch well. But luckily for him the players didn't believe Kiba.
"What do you mean Kiba? This kid's got nothing." A player tried to reason and placed his hand on the raging brunette's shoulder. The brunette shrugged it off harshly and grabbed the blonde by the shoulders.
"That's not true! I saw it after you all left! This kid is an ambidextrous pitcher!" Kiba shouted his eye twitching in anger as the players looked at him in disbelief.
"Impossible! There's no such thing!" They shouted incredulously back at him. Kiba couldn't handle the anger and the kid was seriously beginning to piss him off.
"If you won't use this arm, I'll break it!" He shouted his threat making the blonde's fierce blue eyes narrow, silently egging the brunette on. Kiba grabbed hold of the fragile, thin arm of the blonde and the players started shouting in chaos, shocked that Kiba would go to such lengths. Suddenly Sasuke appeared with their coach, Kakashi.
"Kiba!" Sasuke barked and Kakashi separated the two players. Sasuke was speechless, he was so angry at Kiba for even suggesting hurting a teammate. Sasuke was the kind of person who believed that baseball was supposed to be fun and was greatly against anger on the field. He believed in good sportsmanship.
On the other hand, he really couldn't blame the brunette, he was kind of angry at the blonde for not pitching well. It was like he was just messing with them.
Kiba shoved Kakashi's hand off of him and he slammed the door open, leaving the dugout angrily. Kakashi then looked down at Naruto expectantly and the other players stared at him with hard eyes. Suddenly the blonde calmly pushed the coach's hand off of him.
"I can't be on a team where a player threatens to break my arm." The blonde said. On the outside, it looked like he was calm, but those who looked into his eyes knew it was a different story. It looked like he was caged beast, ready to attack anything.
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A/N: Ah, so I'm happy that I finally started a new story! How was it? I'm sorry if it seemed a little cliché or anything. I plan on taking this far and this overly used plot is necessary.
Lots of love,
Daikaishi :D