Masked-Writer-In-Disguise: Well, I've decided to turn this into a chaptered story. I was completely dissatisfied with the ending, and a couple of my readers were too(Leigha002, SammiZ and Bunnygoon1992), so I read it a couple of times after I posted it and I realized exactly how many holes were in here. Now I've decided I'd expand upon it. Here is Chapter 2 of Well, Here We Go… and I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or anybody else. I certainly don't own the show, so why do we keep asking? If I owned it I wouldn't be writing this.

Inspiration: 10th Grade-Joseph Weisberg

Pairings: I listed them in Chapter 1. If new pairings pop up, I'll let you know.

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Well, Here We Go… Chapter 2

By: Masked-Writer-In-Disguise

It's been three weeks since we'd gotten back to school and since I met Sasuke and Gaara (who was pretty awesome once you got passed his stoicness… Did you know he's an insomniac? He doesn't need eyeliner or shadow at all…), who were now completely ingrained in our friend circle. Sasuke has opened up a bit more, and it was obvious the pale teen wasn't used to social situations or having friends. My friends think it's really weird, but I understand. I hadn't had any friends before I moved in with Iruka and he forced me to go to public school. That's when I met Kiba.

Anyway, in those weeks Sasuke started coming over to my house for dinner and over weekends when his foster father, whom I had still not met, had to go out of town on business, and, in those three weeks, I had finally come to accept that I was attracted to those of my own sex, mainly Sasuke. Sure, sometimes I forgot about what I'd come to accept and completely freaked out (it's not easy being gay); that was always fun. I haven't told anyone about my internal dilemma yet, 'cause I'm kinda scared about how everyone will take the news, and I know that that fear is completely stupid and irrational, too.

I know that because Kiba's gay and would warmly welcome me into the ranks and Iruka's calm and accepting and bi and nobody else would really care. Shino would 'hm' and adjust his sunglasses. Choji would smile and pat me on the back. Shikamaru would say something along the lines of 'I know.' Lee would go off on a spiel about me embracing my youthfulness (he did that when Kiba came out, so that's how I know… He does that at the slightest provocation, actually…). Gaara would…I don't know what Gaara would do; he's kinda weird. Temari would say 'damn, I own Shikamaru money,' and Kankurou would throw his hands up in the air in a victorious gesture and scream 'yes! another fag' at the top of his lungs.

The popular people would give me hell for about a year ('cause that's what they did to Kiba before Tsunade got angry at them). Well, the popular people omitting Neji and Hinata Hyuuga; the Hyuuga's and I are really close and Neji's still in the closet to everybody except for his closest friends and Hinata. Sakura and Ino would plot my downfall (I'd left her of a dude, after all), probably were plotting right at this moment, in fact, and everyone else was just everyone else, and I don't really give a damn about what they say or do.

And that was really all that was keeping me from admitting my feelings for Sasuke (and they were there because some little tiny part of myself had found it and latched onto it and hid it in a box somewhere for safe keeping, just in case I needed it in the not-so-distant future (my inner self can be smart like that, sometimes)), and it was also what was really bugging me. I, Naruto Uzumaki, was afraid of what people thought about me, and that was very un-Naruto-like of me.

Anyway, that's enough about me and my personal problems; back to Sasuke. When he come over to my house for the…fourth time (it was a sleep over; the other three times were just for dinner) he asked to take a shower, so I told him he could. He was taking forever so I went up to see what was taking him so long. The shower curtain had been pulled back a bit (the door hadn't been closed; it was opened a crack to let the steam out 'cause we didn't have a fan), and there were scars all over him, like someone had whipped him or something, and you could see his ribs. I don't know what happened to him, but, out of morbid curiosity, I wanted, and still want, to know. Does his foster father beat him? How old are those scars? Are they the reason he's in a foster home in the first place? Are they the reason he doesn't eat a lot (although, Iruka tends to force feed him when he's over)? Did he get kidnapped? In an accident?

I didn't say or do anything to indicate that I'd seen and simply asked him if he was OK 'cause he was taking forever. He'd said he'd be right down, so I left and I still haven't said anything about it and I probably won't 'til it becomes completely, irrevocably obvious that I've seen. Y'know, the scars are probably the reason he doesn't take gym.

So, now, I'm going over to his house for the first time since we've met and I'm hoping to find out a bit more about him. Right now, all I know about him is that his favorite food is tomatoes, he's in a foster home, his foster father was a friend of his deceased uncle, Obito, he's 15 (same as me), he's extremely timid due to some childhood trauma that he rarely hints at (where did those scars come from?), and that he likes symphonic metal music. As you can probably deduce, this is a very exciting day for me; a bed room tells a lot about a person.

School today was pretty normal; normal classes, normal lunch, same types of conversations (I would never label our conversations as normal) to which Sasuke was finally contributing (his foster dad seems awesome and completely strange at the same time; he reads porn in public…), uneventful, really. The last class of the day always seems to be the longest (have you noticed this?) and I was just waiting for the figurative bell to ring. Sasuke was sitting next to me, doodling on his notes (he's a pretty good artist and I've told him so; he said he knows someone better). The minute hand seemed to not be moving and I'd been tapping my pencil against my opened notebook for the better part of the hour (I'd just steal notes from Shino later). The teacher was still droning on in the background, but I wasn't paying any attention to him at all.

I was watching Sasuke. He had strange mannerisms and they showed in the way he sat. He always looked like he was listening to something very faint and/or far away with the way his head tilted to the side. He also always sat on the edge of his seat like he was expecting to have to get up and run. He always had to do something with his hands otherwise he freaked out, so his fingers were always tapping or his leg was always shaking or he was drawing, writing, something. It was almost like he hadn't been able to move his limbs and took simple pleasure in using them. He also-

There was a flurry of movement and my thoughts were ended abruptly. I really hoped Sasuke hadn't noticed me staring; he tended to freak out about that kind of stuff. I stood up and shoved all of my stuff into my bag, following Sasuke out of the room and to our locker block shortly after. Kiba and Kankurou were already there (almost completely had their tongues down each other's throats, too), discussing their weekend plans (it was completely obvious as to what their weekend plans were, not to mention hot, but I'm not going to go there). I rolled my eyes and Sasuke sighed, continuing on to his locker.

I reached mine and pulled out my duffle bag (I had no clue how I managed to get it in there and it would probably never happen again).

"So, how was biology?" Kiba asked, untangling himself from Kankurou.

"Um, I don't know. I wasn't paying attention," I replied with a grimace.

"Shino's not gonna be happy with you," Sasuke admonished. He was getting better at talking freely with us.

"Yeah, but he'll still give 'em to me. He's too nice to let me fail," I shrugged my bag over my shoulder and turned to Sasuke, who slammed his locker closed.

"Ready, dobe?" he asked. He'd started calling me 'dobe' after I let two completely idiotic statements out of my mouth in a row. The stories my friends told about me didn't help my case much, either.

"Yep, let's go, teme," I said. I'd started calling him 'teme' shortly after he'd given me my nickname. It'd just seemed fitting at the time, and it kinda stuck.

"We'll see ya guys later, then," Kankurou said in farewell, pulling Kiba back against his chest.

"Yeah, tell the guys 'bye' for me when/if you see them. You two try to keep it M, not X, alright?" I called to them as we walked down the hall. We exited the build to their laughter and shouts of 'as if.' Then we were outside and Sasuke scanned the cars parked out front, waiting for their student passengers to get in (our school didn't have a bussing system).

"Kakashi can be late sometimes, but he tries to be on time if it's important for/to me." Coal black eyes ran over the cars. "He's not here yet."

We went to lean against the wall. There were a few moment of silence, then, "Don't Kiba and Kankurou ever get in trouble for inappropriate PDA?"

I laughed because that was the last question I'd expected to hear out of Sasuke's mouth. "Um, I'm not sure, but I don't think they do. No teachers are ever around when they're making out, and those two have this uncanny ability to know when a teacher is near. Even if they did get into trouble, Shino would get them out. He's their favorite, the teachers."

Sasuke nodded as though it were painfully obvious and turned away for a few minutes, "What's this school's policy or reaction or whatever to being gay?"

"They don't really care. Granny Tsunade doesn't like prejudiced people, thinks they're a waste of space and they usually don't last long at this school because of all the gay in the air," I replied and Sasuke laughed. He didn't laugh very often and I took a small amount of pride knowing that I was the one who'd made him smile and laugh like that. It was beautiful, his laughter.

"Wow, it's been a long time since I've heard that," a voice in front of us said.

I looked up and saw a male that looked very much like Sasuke except he was paler and his hair and eyes weren't as black and he wore a tank top with the bottom cut off to expose his well-toned midriff. His baggy pants had lots of pockets with paint brushes sticking out of the top of them.

"Um, hi?" I doubted this was Kakashi because he barely looked older than Sasuke and me, but, at this point, I wasn't sure of anything.

The man in front of us opened his mouth, but Sasuke cut him off, "Sai, shut up. Whatever you're going to say, don't. I know it's not gonna be nice." Sasuke turned to me, "This is my foster brother, Sai. Sai, this is Naruto."

My mouth formed and 'oh' shape and I looked back at Sai, who seemed to be pouting.

"I wasn't gonna be mean. I was just gonna say 'let's go because Kakashi's here.'"

"No shit," Sasuke pretended to be amazed. "You mean you don't fall out of the sky on a regular basis?"

Sai glared. "Shut up, boy. I can still take you."

And I was suddenly jealous. You see, my foster brother (of two weeks) was a five year old named Konohamaru. Talking to him wasn't nearly as fun as talking to someone my own age. I ignored the jealousy and picked up my bags; I wanted to meet Kakashi. Sasuke followed my lead and we both followed Sai to the car.

Whatever I'd been expecting Kakashi to be, what I saw wasn't it. He was a silver-haired man of (maybe) 30 with a bandanna covering the bottom half of his face and a pair of mismatched eyes. He'd probably had to get a replacement surgery or something because one of them was an icy blue and the other was an odd red color. When he smiled at me, his eyes crinkled up to form half circle shapes and I couldn't help but smile back. He seemed very friendly.

"Hello, you must be Naruto," Kakashi said and his voice was unexpected too. He looked like he should be a tenor, but it was a low baritone, smooth and almost pretty.

I nodded and he pressed the button that would pop the trunk of the old beat up Mercedes Benz. When me and my stuff were safely in the car, the silver-haired man pulled out of the driveway and we were speeding towards Sasuke's house.

"So, how was your day today, boys?" Kakashi asked, looking at us via rear-view mirror.

"It was very normal and the last hours seemed to drag on far longer than it should," I replied. I liked Kakashi.

"That always seems to happen," Sai nodded with a slight frown on his face. "I personally think time does the whole yo-yo thing just to make us miserable…"

And thus the conversation went. Kakashi really didn't say anything else unless he was addressed directly; he just watched us quietly, sometimes smiling at what we said. It was all very comfortable and this was honestly the first time I'd ever seen Sasuke actually lounge in a seat. It was amazing. We spent the rest of the car ride in this type of meaningless chatter and before I knew it, we were at the house.

It was a normal looking, bi-level house; tan siding, blue trim, nicely manicured lawn, a little bit of a garden full of green plants lining the walkway to their blue front door. I got out and Kakashi grabbed my things from the trunk before I'd had the chance to get them myself and when I tried to get them from him, he simply placed the stuff over his own shoulder and walked towards the house, completely bypassing the walkway and taking the lawn instead. Sai followed him. I looked at Sasuke in question.

"He does that with all of our guests. I think that he was raised to completely play servant to the guests, but I'm not sure," Sasuke replied and I nodded. Iruka had a friend, Hayate, that was like that.

The inside of the house didn't match the outside. There was a different theme for every room, and they were all pretty obscure. The entry way was cluttered with various collars and leashes and shoes and coats. The dining room table and chairs looked like they'd been picked out of dumps and trash piles, but worked in this house (there are very few people that can pull off the mismatched table set). The living room didn't have a common color; the walls were splatter painted and the furniture ranged from tie-dye to a solid blue leather, the end tables looked much the same as the dining set, but it felt homey. There was a healthy layer of clutter laying about the place and a total of…one, two, three…seven dogs.

"Naruto, you'll be sleeping in Sasuke's room. I've already laid out a futon and blankets and put your stuff in there. Make yourself at home and feel free to raid the pantry if you get hungry," Kakashi gave his opening speech. "Now, it you boys need anything, I'll be in my room. I have some papers I gotta sign." He grimaced. "Don't grow up. It sucks being old." And he disappeared into what I assumed was his room.

"Um, I'll give you the tour," Sasuke said and the tour began. "This is the living room, you've already seen the dining room." We started walking. "That's the kitchen. This is Sai's bedroom and art studio. That's the bathroom, and Kakashi's room there. And this is my bedroom."

He opened to door to the room and I looked around. Sasuke was a very neat person. Everything was in its place and he bed was made, albeit a bit sloppily, and the books on his shelf were arranged by author, but not alphabetically as some people were known to do (-cough-Shino-cough). There were posters on the wall featuring what I assumed to be Sasuke's favorite bands like Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Skillet. Just as Kakashi had said, there was a futon at the foot of the book case and my stuff was resting next to it.

"Wow, you can't see the floor in my room," I said as I stepped inside. I kinda stood there and looked around, feeling that awkwardness that always seems to pop up the first time you go to someone's house. Had Sasuke felt that way when he first came to my house?

"So, what do you want to do first? We have movies, the computer, X-Box 360, umm… Twister, The Game of Life…Scene It… or we could paint Sai."

I frowned at the last statement, and Sasuke clarified for me.

"Literally paint him, like paint to skin. He's weird like that, but he likes to see what other people come up with, and rather than waste canvas, we use him; canvas is expensive. Anyway, when Kakashi and I do it, we take pictures of it for him."

"That sounds like fun," I smiled. "Iruka would kill me if I let someone paint on me," I said, and Iruka would be extremely angry. He'd explode all over the nice clean living room and then make me clean it up. Yes, he loved me, but that love wasn't enough to protect him from sudden and irreversible death.

"We don't have to paint on you, just Sai… Or we could paint the carpet in the hallway. We're getting it replaced soon."

So, this family was extremely artistic. I liked it. They had a very free flowing type of lifestyle, and it was new to me, but I needed structure otherwise nothing would ever get done and Iruka knew that. That was why he limited my free time.

"Um, which movies do you have?"

So, we watched movies 'til dinner; Donnie Darko, Sunshine, and half of Stage Beauty (which was completely weird and had gay in it (blatantly obvious, too) and a cross-dressing man that played a chick onstage, but it was good so far). When dinner came, everybody knew it. Kakashi had been cooking a really good smelling fish for the last hour and when he was done with that and the brown rice and vegetables, he simply called out 'soup's on, so eat it.' We all followed his direction.

"I think I've finally found someone who could beat Iruka at fish," I said after a few minutes of meaningless chatter.

Kakashi smiled. "Thank you. Who's Iruka?"

"You've been letting Sasuke come over to my house without knowing my foster parent?" My brain had problems wrapping around it. Iruka always made sure he knew the parents of my friends. He did everything short of calling in a private investigator.

"Yeah, he seemed comfortable enough with you guys, so I figured it was OK. These two are usually pretty good at reading people," Kakashi explained with a shrug. He trusted his 'boys' a lot. "So, what's Iruka's last name?"

"Ah, Umino," I said off-handedly. Adults usually asked about other adults.

Unfortunately, Kakashi had taken that moment to take a drink and promptly spit it all over his plate. "Iruka Umino? Really tan, sweet guy, monstrous temper, with a scar across his nose? That Iruka Umino?"

I looked at him, startled, and nodded slowly, my suspicious gaze never leaving his face. Was this guy a creepy stalker dude?

"Wow," he let out a bark of laughter and thumped his chest, coughing slightly, "small world." When he saw my look of confusion, mirrored by the other two, he decided to explain. "We went to high school together. He never really liked me much."

"Kakashi, did you stalk him?" Sai sounded like he was scolding the other man.

The silver-haired man looked highly offended. "Me, stalk? No. I was just very persistent. Apparently, I was annoying."

We all laughed at that (even Sasuke, much to the amazement of Kakashi and Sai) and dinner continued on in that general fashion. Kakashi told us about all the pranks Iruka pulled back in middle school and how straight laced he was in high school. Now I know how Iruka is able to deal with me and Konohamaru without blowing up; he used to be just like us, except I still pulled pranks, just not as often as I used to. I decided that I like stories, which is probably why I like to write so much, but yeah, I liked them and I liked to listen to people tell them.

After dinner we all helped clean up. Kakashi put away the food, Sasuke washed the dishes, Sai washed off the counters and I swept 'cause I didn't want to be useless. Kakashi, Sai and Sasuke all said I didn't have to, but I thought I'd do something nice in return for the good meal and the stories. I'd have to be sure to tell Iruka about them… and Kakashi living across town, just to see what happened. When we were finished we, meaning Sasuke, Sai and me, returned to the couch in the living room to finish our movie.

By the end of our next movie, Sasuke was curled up against my chest and I had my arms around him; he didn't seem to mind that little bit of contact, so I took advantage of it (mischievous smirk here). Sasuke was so small, despite his age. Sure, he was taller than me, but he didn't show it. He always seemed smaller than real life, somehow, almost like he just wanted to fade into the background, not be seen or noticed or talked to. If he had just a little more meat on him, some muscle and a more commanding attitude, he'd be the heart throb of Konoha High. Sai got up to take out the disk and Kakashi came in.

"Hey, boys, you should probably get to bed. Its 2:30 AM," the man said quietly. He looked at me and Sasuke with a slight frown, but it didn't seem to be one of anger, just confusion.

We nodded and the three of us stretched in unison, more ready for bed then we had realized. He nodded and turned back to his room, going to bed himself, but I barely noticed that. What I did notice was Sasuke rubbing, however accidentally, against my body. It was nothing, just a stretch to relieve cramped muscles, but it was touching me, and I liked it. I groaned slightly and lightly pushed Sasuke off me so I could stand and not have to feel him touching me like that, even if it was an accident.

"A'ight, I'll see y'all in the mornin'," Sai muttered as he exited the room.

Sasuke and I grunted our acknowledgement and made our own way to his room. When we got in there, we turned our backs to each other and got into out pajamas and climbed into bed. Sasuke reached to a spot on the wall next to his bed that I hadn't noticed before and turned out the lights. It was silent enough for me to hear Sasuke's breathing get deeper and even out, and I waited until he was fully asleep to let myself drift off. It was weird; I've never done that for any of my other friends. Did that mean this little think niggling at the back of my mind is way ore than simple lust or a crush?

I didn't get to answer my own question before the blackness of sleep took over.

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Masked-Writer-In-Disguise: Well, there you have it; chapter 2 of a story that wasn't originally meant to have two chapters. What do you think? Let me know, m'kay? Please? Thanks.