"Hello." His baritone voice rang out in the empty apartment more than it should have.
"Sasuke?" A dark eyebrow rose at the voice from the past, one he hadn't heard in a very long time. What a coincidence he mentally scoffed.
"This is he."
"Ah man I haven't talked to you in forever!" He cringed slightly at the yell, but he forced himself to keep the phone to his ringing ear. Sasuke turned to lean against the counter as he spoke.
"Dobe, what's going on?" Although his tone seemed disinterested and bored, it was a pleasant surprise to hear his childhood friend. The man on the other end chuckled before he spoke again.
"Ah same old same old, you know I moved back a few years ago." Sasuke rolled his eyes. Tch, stupid.
"I know, idiot." Surprisingly, Sasuke had kept in touch with his old friend through college and afterwards. He had lived in New York a short time with Sasuke before he found some short big busted chick to pop a few kids out with. The dark haired man mentally shuddered at the thought.
"Yeah, yeah," here the blond on the other end of the line cleared his throat, something he never did, he didn't have a serious bone in him, causing Sasuke to unconsciously tense on his end. "So, no homo, but I really miss you man." Dark eyes narrowed at the anticlimactic confession.
"You aren't going through an early midlife crisis are you?" He smirked at the swear that answered his question, followed by a muffled reprimand and a screech of pain that caused him to hold the phone away from his ear again.
"Damn." He could imagine the blond shaking his head before he turned his attention back to the phone. "Anyways, I miss the good times man, and if you could maybe get a couple of days, there- well you see you don't have to do it- buuut there is this thing that-"
Impatient at the babbling, Sasuke interrupted, "What is it?" There was a silence for a moment in which Sasuke roved his eyes around his empty apartment, thinking that it might have been a little too big for jus him, but quickly he shook away the thought.
"My daughter's baptism is this weekend, and I want you to be her godfather." He froze, only for a second before he breathed out calmly, suddenly feeling slightly embarrassed, although no one was there to see him.
"Are you su-" The question was expected apparently.
"It can only be you, you're my best friend, sure you're a bastard- it's not like she understands the word!- but you're the only one I trust enough." Although the heartfelt confession was interrupted by a yell over the shoulder, it impacted the man just the same.
"I would be honored." It's not like he would love too, but how could he morally say no to that?
And that was how Sasuke found himself in his Lamborghini Murcielago Superveloce, going twenty over the speed limit to the place he never thought he would see again, not when his best friend moved back, not when his foster parent moved out, never. The ride was silent, he was too deep in thought and music was just a distraction. He merged right onto the interstate exit and then it was only another forty minutes to the hellhole he was shipped to when he was four, after his parents and only sibling died in a car accident. He didn't care, he didn't know them, hell, he couldn't even remember them, but Kakashi, his foster dad and child councilor of the town, never really filled the roll of a father, and he never had a mother figure.
That was probably why he and Naruto got along so well, Naruto was fostered by the Iruka family just two years after Sasuke arrived and through their bickering and fists, they formed a bond that survived years of separation. On the outskirts of the city, Sasuke gunned it to ninety down the rural road- there were never any cars down this strip of asphalt. It should only take him about half the time to reach his destination, he mused. Gradually, the fields began to break up into orchards, and from there the gaps filled with wild trees, their leaves just beginning to change. He didn't pay attention to any of it, practically none of the landscape had changed, not that he expected it to, and that was exactly why he had to get out of there.
When Sasuke graduated from high school, he high-tailed it out of the little dump of a town that felt more like a prison for all of his fourteen years living there. Weed and beer could only take you so far from reality, and there was always the future he had to keep in mind, always, and so throughout his high school years, there were specific rules that he had developed and followed almost religiously, not that he would know what that meant.
Number one, never smoke or drink when there was a possibility of being drug tested the next day: so school days, Sundays, and any Friday that was followed by a tournament of some sort, were off limits.
Number two, no matter how much of a pain it was, keep the grades up. It wasn't that difficult since most of it was busy work, and practically everyone else had resigned their fate to lower middle class/poverty America where the most you could accomplish was doing the head cheerleader in your backseat, or maybe scoring big on a job in the closest city, forty minutes away.
Number three, and this was the golden rule learned from an early age: girls were not to be messed with. He had hung on to that one like his life depended on it: condoms always broke, and their emotions made him want to barf. That didn't stop him from letting one or two of them suck him off after a big game, but that was as far as it went. No dating, and especially, as much of a foot in the ass it was, no sex. Babies were something he avoided from the get go, they were what tripped most people up in life, doomed most teens to a mediocre life at best, and he would be damned if that ever happened to him. And so Sasuke never slipped up, never broke his rules, never bended them or made exceptions
Except once.
He shook his head out of the memory that seemed to creep back up on him every other minute. Sasuke figured it was because he was going back to the place where it all happened: not the sex part, Kakashi had sold that place off when he met the chick he married during Sasuke's second year in college, but where they met, grew up together along with Naruto, where they competed for top of the class, where they fought over his drinking and him telling her it was none of her business…
He was brought out of his thoughts by the shriek of a siren, with a glance in his rearview mirror; the bright lights accompanied the siren as it shrieked again. He lifted his foot off the accelerator the same time he stated, "Fuck."
When the vehicle came to a complete stop, he reached over and opened the glove box to retrieve the registration papers. What a complete waste of time, he resisted a sneer as he hit the button to roll down the window. When he turned his carefully neutral face towards the officer, he had to resist doing a double take at the D's staring back at him. He took a calming breath through his nose as the officer bent down so they were face to face. "My, my, if it isn't Sasuke Uchiha." He raised an eyebrow at the woman, he couldn't exactly place her, but now that he gave her another once over, she did seem familiar.
He plastered a smirk on his pale lips. "The one and only." If she was an old schoolmate, he might be able to charm his way out of this one. The officer smiled before leaning against his hood, effectively pushing out her already large chest.
"Well, Mr. "one and only", do you know how fast you were going?" His raised eyebrow twitched.
"I suppose just over ninety." No point in lying, he mentally shrugged. She looked down at him, amused.
"Ninety-four to be exact. You do know the speed limit is only fifty-five, about to turn to forty-five?" She raised her own eyebrow at him. Okay, maybe she isn't going to be easily wooed.
"Well, you see, I was just so excited to be coming back, I couldn't wait." She snorted at his monotone voice before she softly hit the roof of his car twice, causing his eyebrow to twitch again.
"Okay, I'll let you off; just try to keep it under seventy next time." He nodded twice in affirmation. She turned to walk away before she turned back with an exclamation; he paused in rolling his window back up. "Are you going to the reunion?" His brow creased in obvious confusion, so she elaborated, "The ten year reunion, it's next weekend." Something clicked, and he nodded.
"Yeah, sure." She smiled, at his response, "Okay, I'll see you around then." He didn't bother nodding as he rolled the window back up and carefully pulled the car back onto the road.
A reunion...Who wouldn't miss that? In this town anyways. He briefly wondered why Naruto hadn't mentioned it over the phone before he returned to the reason he even considered going. Everyone would be there, even her. Heck, he wanted to go just so he could shove it up some people's butts, so of course little miss perfect would want to go, she was emotional, she would probably see it as an opportunity to reconnect with everyone. His dark brows inched downwards, to show how much she accomplished, how she moved on in life.
He shook his head for what seemed the millionth time that day and after checking his mirrors, slowly inched down on the accelerator. Five minutes later, he was passing a sign reading
"Welcome to Shelton."
"More like welcome to Shit town." He murmured absentmindedly as in rearview mirror he read the back of the sign, which was "Shelton sucks dick" with a graphic picture. That basically summed the place up. He slowed down as he started passing the 'high end' of the town. To his left was the road that led to semi-large houses, the rich end of town. A mile down and to the right was the high school, still the same, surrounded by the football field, a court yard, and a parking lot littered with trash and a group of kids smoking. Slightly run down houses lined the streets after that.
Naruto lived on Lily avenue, which was a couple of blocks south, but Sasuke kept going, for some strange reason he felt compelled to take the trip down memory lane. He passed downtown and drove to west side, the poor side, where he and Naruto grew up. He made a right at the old Casey's where he and the Dobe would go to smoke their pot or get cheap beer: the cashier had a crush on him despite being about four years older than them. He drove three blocks past even more run down places before he made another right, down his old street.
The old yellow house stood hauntingly amid the row of houses, in equally bad shape. He glanced up at the second story window to the right, his old room. Sasuke passed it in a second, and he glanced ahead as he followed the road down to a T, where he made a left, so he wouldn't have to go back through town. The road ran two miles west of the town, where it crossed the river into the forest preserve park that climbed up the mountain. He reached the fork in the road that if he went straight, led a winding road to the top of the mountain, but he went right, where it ran parallel to the river for a mile before it curved back towards town.
He rode quietly, moving his visor down to block the sun coming from the east, and drove back across the river and past a large farm until the maple and oak trees sprang up again along with scattered houses. Sasuke passed the local park with the rusty metal play set, when he slowed further to look interestingly passed the parked cars to the baseball game.
He remembered playing fall ball when in middle school. The way the sand smelled, how sometimes when he went up to bat, the sun would be in his eyes, and he had to squint to see the pitch. That's what he liked the most about the game, pitching, standing on the mound, calling the game with whatever he wanted, defeating the opponent, one after another.
Sasuke's dark eyes shifted to his old position only to widen a second later. There stood a boy, his cap off as he looked intensely back at the batter, twirling the ball behind his back as he picked the perfect pitch. The strange thing about the boy was his hair:
Black spikes.
A loud screech filled the air, and Sasuke snapped his head back to the road to find that he had drifted slightly into the other lane; he slammed on his breaks as the oncoming truck skidded towards him, but it was too late. The impact jerked his head forward. He didn't register the pain as he blacked out.
"Is he okay?"
"He just started moving over, I didn't realize?"
"Dude, that car is sick."
"You mean it was sick."
At the mention of his car from the murmurs surrounding him, black eyes opened, only to squeeze shut a second later in pain. Damn it. He forced his eyes to open again to find that he was lying on the road, a few feet away from his precious car. He sat up quickly, only to clutch his head when it swam with dizziness.
"Hey, hey, slow down now, you got a good bash to the head." Sasuke turned his attention momentarily to the man kneeling at his side. He mentally scoffed his obvious soccer dad appearance, complete with a visor and cheap Walmart sweat suit. Removing his hand from his forehead, he found red on it. Great he was bleeding.
"Yep, looks like you're going to need some stitches." Glancing again towards the man, Sasuke saw his mouth peeled back do to his scrunched nose as he examined his face. Sasuke, despite a swimming head, managed to stand. His pride didn't allow him to be looked over by Mr. Mom. Faintly, he heard a few people murmur his name.
He turned his attention to the Lamborghini to see that most of the area around the front left light was smashed like an aluminum can. "Fuck." Now he was going to have to get it fixed before he left, he didn't think there even was a rental car in the immediate area, which meant that he would have to rely on Naruto for rides. He probably has a freaking minivan.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. No such language like that mister, we've got children around." Now irritated, Sasuke whipped his head behind him to glare at Mr. Mom, before he looked around him to see the wide eyes of the baseball teams that were playing just a few moments ago, well to him it was a few moments ago.
His dark eyes landed on the boy from earlier, the pitcher. He had a pale face, and his spiky bangs hung over large, round, golden eyes. Sasuke felt a rush of...he wasn't sure what it was rush through him. It wasn't like he ever allowed the possibility of a kid to happen, so for him to see the boy's eyes and feel relief that they didn't look like his…was really stupid.
Not breaking his gaze with the boy's Sasuke opened his mouth.
"Like I really give a shit."
An hour later, Sasuke found himself seated in the dingy sitting room of the local clinic with three hello-kitty band aids, curtsey of one of the soccer moms, across the gash on his forehead. It smelled like dust balls, and old. He had his hands folded in front of his face as his elbows rested on his knees, one of them shaking impatiently. There was no actual hospital within thirty minutes of the town, which was actually kind of unfortunate, so he was stuck waiting with a coughing old woman and a crying baby being held by a girl that looked to be in high school. That didn't stop her from stealing glances his way every minute or so.
His day, sucked, to put it lightly. Suddenly, the heavy door opened when He felt like he couldn't take the dirty blue carpet any longer. "Mr. Uchiha." In a flash he was on his feet and before the gapping nurse. Sasuke stared dispassionately down at her till she cleared her throat and muttered, "This way." He followed her down an equally dingy hall past three closed doors before she ushered him into the fourth one.
"You can take a seat on the table." Her gesture was stupid, since he was already in the process of seating himself. He looked around the room, at the children's boarder of cartooned animals on an ark that repeated around the room, his dark eyes moved down the yellow walls to a large poster picture of an alphabet giraffe standing about two plastic chairs. His mouth tightened.
The nurse stood up from the computer she had logged in to. "Okay, I'm going to take some vitals, please give me your arm." Her fingers shook as they grabbed his muscular arm, and he had to resist a roll of his eyes and a sigh. "Okay, I'm going to check your breathing,"
"You don't have to narrate it." His harsh words and sharp look made her gasp in shock and stare at him with wide eyes.
"S-Sorry." She quickly put her head down before continuing quietly with her work. After everything was done and recorded into the computer, she stood to leave. "The nurse will be with you in a second."
Sasuke frowned, "What do you mean the nurse? Aren't you the nurse?" He watched as the girl turned red.
"Um, well, no I'm a volunteer, so the nurse-" He interrupted her rudely,
"I don't need a nurse; I need a doctor that is what I'm paying for." Her face turned scarlet.
"You see, the d-doctor is really busy, so the nurse is going-"
"I don't want a fucking nurse; I need a goddamn doctor to stitch my head back together!" His hands gripped the edges of the table. This really was not his day.
The girl looked close to tears as she took a deep breath. "The doctor is really busy, so the nurse is going to perform that task." Sasuke took a deep breath through his nostrils.
"Fine." His snap had her scurrying out the door.
Five minutes later, the door opened again. Finally, he scowled as he turned his head towards this 'nurse'. "Mr. Uchiha, a gash to the head that needs some stitches. Okay then, let's get you patched up." His eyes widened, and his jaw slackened at the sight before him.
"Sakura."
So to all of you people who alerted this story, please review and tell me how you like it. don't worry, it'll get interesting next chapter.