Chapter 2 – The first word

A few days went by after that. I tried approaching Sasuke several times, but with no luck. The guy always hung with his friends and they completely blew me off. The only improvement was that he at least knew my name now. It didn't feel much like a victory.

Kiba kept following me around and I appreciated it. He sat with me during class and walked around with me during intervals. He acted as – though I would never say it to his face – a loyal dog. He didn't understand my obsession with Sasuke and every time I mentioned him, Kiba got grumpy. I couldn't help but think that the raven had done something to the brunette. I mean, why else would he behave like an asshole whenever his name came up?

I seemed to be doing pretty good, if I may say so myself. My apartment was finally set up nicely, I still hadn't pissed off any of my neighbors and I still had cash after left after calculating this month's needs.

I was doing pretty well indeed. Now I only had to find a way to persuade Sasuke into posing for me.

Kiba and I walked down the hallway during an interval when I finally found my perfect chance. Sasuke was walking alone down the stairs towards his next class. I could not see his normal group anywhere and I realized it was now or never.

"Sorry, Kiba, I'll talk to you afterwards!" I interrupted the dog-lover in a middle of a sentence, waved and sprinted down the stairs. Sasuke didn't seem to notice me coming and I saw his shoulders tense when I shouted his name.

"Uchiha!" I grinned, panting as I caught up with him, "Hey!"

Sasuke ignored me, but walked faster. It felt almost like an insult to my health if he truly believed that would hinder me from talking to him. Hadn't I just run after him? I easily kept up, probably much to his aggravation.

"Look, Uchiha, I have a favor to ask of you."

This gained me a look from the corner of his eye. I had his attention. It motivated me to keep on talking. But how was I supposed to say it? 'Hey, sit still on a chair for a couple of hours so I can draw you, will ya?' just didn't seem to cut it.

"So, uh, I'm an artist, and I was wondering if I could draw you. You wouldn't have to do anything, just sit still for a couple of hours." There you go, polite and accurate. I gave myself a mental pat on the shoulder. Sasuke slowed down and stared at me. Standing my own, I stared back. His eyes were black orbs. I hadn't noticed how truly black they were before. They seemed cold and matched his ink black bangs framing his face. The pupils disappeared into the color. After couple of minutes of just staring, I repressed the urge to start squirming. He wasn't intimidating or anything; I just… felt kind of weird staring who stared right back without flinching. I had a bad habit of staring at people and it made most pretty uncomfortable when I tried to see just how that cheekbone was shaped. So when I sucked in the fine lines and colors of Sasuke's eyes without him flinching, it felt weird. Sure, he started it, but still.

"Uh, so, what do you think?" I asked when he didn't say anything. Sasuke raised an eyebrow and scoffed.

"Retard," he said before walking away. I stared after him and couldn't bring myself to chase him. I hadn't realized it before, but Sasuke actually never said anything. He stayed quiet while his friends bitched, silently looking at me. The deep voice surprised me. And the first thing he did was calling me a retard!

Shaking my head in silent defeat, I walked up to where Kiba and I parted. I screwed up my perfect chance because he said something, how lame wasn't that.

"Uzumaki! Naruto Uzumaki~!"

I looked up from my quiet fuming at the sound of my name and spotted two girls running in my direction. Not missing a beat, I smiled at them.

"Hey girls, what's up?"

Both of them were brunettes, though one lighter than the other. The darkest giggled, the other one catching her breath.

"Um, well, Naruto – is it okay if I call you Naruto? – can we ask for a favor?" the darkest brunette asked and caught me by surprise. A favor? That was unusual to ask of someone you didn't know.

Hadn't I just asked one of Sasuke? My smile turned strained as I realized what a hypocrite I was being.

"Sure, as long it isn't money, my pockets are emptier than the classroom after Asuma's class constantly smoking."

This time they both giggled, obvious to my inner strains. Even if I just enrolled, hanging with Kiba updated me with all the laughs of the school. I had no problem holding my own. Maybe I should have enrolled at an acting school instead.

"No, no, nothing like that" the lighter one ensured me, before blushing, "but, um… I think maybe introducing you to… our favor would be better… don't you think, Bee?"

I had problems hearing her as the sentence got more and more uncertain. The one called Bee nodded and smiled at me.

"Do you have some time right now?"

I looked over my shoulder, but didn't see Kiba anywhere, so I shrugged, "Yeah."

The "favor" turned out to be a freshman, a boy with ink black hair and matching eyes. To be honest, he reminded me a bit of Sasuke, hadn't it been for the creepy smile constant on his lips.

"Naruto, this is Sai. Sai was, is… well, he came out of the closet very recently," Bee said.

I blinked. I wanted to say that they were blind if they didn't know after just one look at the guy. Instead I said, "Congrats", and smiled. What it all had to do with me I still didn't get.

"And what we you to do, well…" Bee looked left and right before she lent closer, a hand to her mouth, – very dramatically, I may add – and whispered, "We heard about what you did at Namikaze Academy."

My gut squeezed uncomfortably. They had heard? Who could they possibly have heard something like that from?

"I… I don't know what you're talking about," I faked a smile, "It's probably just a stupid rumor."

Bee frowned and looked to the floor before sharing a glance with the two of her friends.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but we heard you would sleep with anyone if they asked," Bee said and my every hope of it all being a misunderstanding on my part died.

I waved a hand in front of me. "Pfff, where did you hear that? That's stupid," I laughed, hoping they didn't hear the nervousness in it.

Not a week had passed and people already knew? Did someone else know, and if so, who? My hands gradually started turning moist and I dried them discreetly on my jeans. Dammit, at this rate I wouldn't be able to make a name for myself here before the rumors caught up with me.

The raven freshman who still hadn't said anything took a step forward. "Our sources are pretty good, are you sure you just don't have balls enough to admit it?" The raven smiled, but even 100 feet away you wouldn't be fooled by it.

I balled my fists. "Hey, for your information my balls are in perfect condition, it's not my fault that you guys believe some shitty rumor."

Sai opened his mouth to say something however before he could, the brunette I still didn't know the name of jumped forwards and clasped her hands in front of it.

"Right, our mistake, sorry, Naruto, we're gonna go."

Sai shot her a little nasty look, but didn't say anything as the two girls dragged him down the corridor. I watched them until their backs disappeared around the corner.

Fuck, crap, bloody pizza! This was not good! This was not good at all. I dragged a hand through my hair, taking a deep breath. Okay. No need to panic. I just needed to calm down, find the one spreading the rumors and deny them like a sonofabitch.

No problem, right?

Right…


A/N: Man, guys, I don't know what to even say about this. It took me... just about forever to get this posted. My beta never got the time to look over it, so it is not been beta-read, so sorry about that. I'm working on finding another more reliable one, but it is taking me some time.

I hope to be able to continue this story, but for now I'm just posting this, and then I'll take it from there. I want to apologize to everyone who had to wait for such a long time, truly I never meant for this story for go on such a long hiatus. However, it happened, and for that I'm sorry.

On the bright hand however, I'm working on a new fanfiction, which I believe will be much better than this one, with a better plot and better starting point. I'll give you as much as the word "assassin". It will be posted as soon as I am able to get it beta-read, so look forward to that!