Hey everyone! Here's chapter two for you! Things start to get a bit more interesting and comedic.
Thanks to al who commented and happy (late) birthday to you Hatake Tsughi!
Hope you enjoy!
"PIZZA!" Kiba shouted. Akamaru barked loudly.
"No way!" We should all make something together since it's the holidays." Ino said as she hit the dog ninja across the head.
"Exactly, it's the holidays! That's the reason why we should order pizza!" Kiba growled.
Sasuke glanced over at the blonde who was sitting in the corner, still pale from before. The rave smirked and deliberately sat beside him. He felt the dobe stiffen.
Glancing around, he saw that everyone was sitting or standing, forming a circle around Ino and Kiba who were in the middle of the room, still arguing.
Neiji and Gaara were talking quietly in another corner, Shikamaru looking in their direction as he listened to the conversation between Choji, Shino, Tenten, and Sakura. Meanwhile, Temari, Lee and Kankuro were deep in conversation, discussing something else. Hinata was the only one paying any attention to the two in the middle, trying to calm their slowly boiling anger.
Sasuke felt a stab of jealousy as he saw Hinata sneak looks in the dobe's direction.
"Aren't you going to argue about having ramen for dinner?" Sasuke casually asked the blonde.
"I don't want any," he replied quietly.
The raven raised his eyebrows in mock surprise and turned to look at the blonde. There was sweat running down his forehead and he was still a bit pale. Feeling guilty, the raven figured he would have to fix this. Leaning closer to the blonde, he said in a voice only audible to the dobe: "It was a joke."
Naruto, who had been as stiff as a board, looked into Sasuke's eyes, confused, and upon seeing the mischief hidden in those dark orbs, he inflated, his face flushing in clear anger.
"WHAAAT?! Naruto shouted, grabbing everyone's attention. "You'll die for that, teme!" He stood up and ran after the raven who was already fleeing out the door; he knew it was best to wait this one our rather than fight back.
The remaining ninja watched on as the two ninjas fled the scene in a Tom and Jerry-like way. They winced as they heard the loud bangs and screams that ensued.
"Ha ha ha, what happened now?"
"I bet Sasuke did something."
"Or it could just be Naruto being a dobe again…"
Everyone laughed at the last comment, and then Gaara went after them.
"I'll go see what's wrong," he said, walking out the door.
"I'll come, too," Shikamaru said, "watching those two arguing is troublesome." He jerked his head towards Ino and Kiba, and then followed after the red-head.
They found Naruto shouting angrily and banging on a door which Sasuke was obviously on the other side of.
So troublesome, Shikamaru thought as he and Gaara tried to get the blonde to tell them what happened and calm the dobe down. When it was finally safe for the raven to come out, Naruto was huffing in anger and his face was still flushed.
The raven apologized, surprisingly, and the blonde grudgingly forgave him; he found it very difficult to stay mad at his crush.
On their way back to the others, Shikamaru quietly thanked the blonde.
"Huh? What for?" he asked, confused.
"For rooming me with…him," Shikamaru whispered, a blush creeping up his face. Naruto was the only on whom he had told of his feelings for a certain red-haired shinobi.
"Oh, that? No problem!" Naruto grinned, and then added quietly, "It helped me to get roomed with teme." He eyed the raven in front of him, and then looked down at his feet. He felt it was obvious that nothing would happen between the two. Naruto knew that his love would forever stay unrequited.
Shikamaru saw the depressed look on the blonde's face. He wanted to say something to make him feel better, but he wasn't sure what. He had a suspicion that the raven held similar feelings for the blonde, but he didn't want to get Naruto's hopes up just incase he was wrong. So, they made their way back to the others in silence.
In the end, they had all settled for ordering takeout; they were starving and no one felt like cooking anything. Once the food had arrived and they were full to the brim, one by one they all headed to bed since it was getting pretty late.
Shikamaru changed and lay down on his bed with his arms crossed behind his head. From the corner of his eye, he saw Kankuro falling into a deep slumber and Gaara sitting quietly on his bed, leaning against the headboard.
Once Naruto had changed, he waited on the bed for Sasuke to finish in the bathroom. Naruto looked around the room trying to determine where he would be sleeping because he was not going to sleep on the floor!
When Sasuke was done, he came out, wearing a white t-shirt and boxers. He noticed Naruto sitting on the bed, apparently waiting for him. "What do you want, dobe? Go to sleep."
"In case you haven't noticed, there's only one bed, and I'm not sleeping on the floor!" Naruto said, pouting.
"Well, neither am I."
"…"
"Naruto, the bed is huge."
"…"
"So stop hogging all the space and squish over; we're sharing."
"…huh?"
"We're sharing, dobe!" Sasuke was now getting irritated.
"What?! I don't wanna share with you! I'm gonna get your chicken-butt hair germs!" Naruto shouted.
"…what?" Sasuke stared, dumbfounded. Naruto really was an idiot.
"Yeah…then tomorrow I'll wake up and have chicken-butt hair like you do!" the blonde whined.
Sasuke was oh so tempted to argue back. But he was also pretty tired. Hmmm fight back or get some sleep? Both sounded so good…
"Ughh, Naruto, you're the world's biggest dobe." Sasuke grumbled as he got into bed. "Now, I'm going to sleep. Do whatever you want, just don't disturb me."
The raven closed his eyes and did his best to ignore the blonde's grumbling. After a while, Naruto finally gave up and got under the covers, "Fine! But if I wake up with chiken-butt or even duck-butt hair then I blame you!"
And with that, the two of them slowly fell into a deep slumber, each of their minds dreaming of the other.
Shikamaru had head the rumours of the sand ninja's sleepless nights, but had never believed them until he noticed, at three o'clock in the morning, that Gaara was still awake, and was sitting by the window, letting the moonlight illuminate his features. He himself had woken up because his throat was unusually dry.
Silently, the lazy ninja got up and took a sip of water from the glass on his bedside table. He noticed Gaara glance at had before turning back to gaze at the moon.
"Can't sleep?" the lazy ninja asked quietly, mindful of the still sleeping Kankuro on the other side of the room.
"No," came an equally quiet answer.
Shikamaru got up and took a seat beside the sane ninja. "Is there something the matter?"
He wasn't sure if he should have been asking, but he pushed his luck anyway.
"…Things in my mind…" the redhead mumbled.
Shikamaru turned to look at him sharply; he had said in my mind, not on my mind. "When was the last time you had any sleep?"
Gaara finally turned to look at the lazy ninja, his eyes scrutinizing the young man. "About a fortnight ago," he turned to face the moonlight again. "Why?"
Shikamaru bit back the urge to say 'because I care about you'. It wasn't the right him yet and he wasn't sure how Gaara would react. "You should try to get some sleep."
The redhead looked at the boy beside him with a curious expression. "That's not so easy to do; my mind is haunted. I can't escape from it."
Silence fell between them as they resorted to continue looking out the window.
"Try to sleep, if anything happens I'll be right here," Shikamaru turned to the sand ninja with a determined look. "I'll take away your sleepless nights."
"No," the reply was soft. "Losing your sleep is not worth it. This is my problem." Gaara turned to look at the raven-haired ninja and he couldn't help but feel the heat rush to his cheeks; he hadn't realized how mysteriously beautiful his eyes where.
Shikamaru sighed, still looking at the redhead. So troublesome. "Then I guess I'll stay up with you."
Gaara blinked at the simple statement. No one had ever said that before. They always told him to go to sleep or tried to pry into his mind. This was different. This was new. He felt something light up inside him as he realized that this was what he wanted.
He gave the lazy ninja a suspicious look as he looked back out the window. He seemed to genuinely mean what he said. Gaara looked out at the heavenly night sky before he leaned in towards the wall of his left side and slowly closed his eyes. He didn't know when he fell asleep, but he was grateful for it; it was the best night of sleep he had had in a long time.
Shikamaru looked beside him at the sleeping redhead. A smile played at his lips as he looked with more detail at the sleeping boy's peaceful face. It had taken a while, but Gaara's mind finally been overcome with long-deprived sleep.
Silently, he got up, taking the sleeping ninja into his arms. He then quietly walked over to the sand's bed and laid him down on it, covering him with the warm blanket.
He leaned in towards the innocent boy, his lips hovering above the others. Oh, how he wanted to capture those lips with his own, taste them, feel them, marks them as his.
He stood up straight again and took his place by the window. As much as he wanted to feel those lips against his, he couldn't. That would only hurt him even more when Gaara finally rejected him. And if he ever would kiss the redhead, it would be the ninja's full consent.
When Gaara woke up the next morning, he felt refreshed and full of energy. He sat up and looked around. He couldn't help but let his lips curl into a smile: Shikamaru was sitting by the window, with his head propped up with his arm on the window sill, fast asleep.
He must have fallen asleep, Gaara thought to himself. Then, struck with an amusing thought, he got up, grabbing his sand gourd, and walked up to the sleeping young man.
Carefully controlling the sand, he brought a few grains of it up to the lazy ninja's nose. Shikamaru frowned due to the disturbance and subconsciously wiggled his nose to rid of the irritation. Then, suddenly, his eyes flew open and his hand moved to cover his face as he let out a loud sneeze.
Seeing the odd grains of sand in front of his face, he waved his hand frantically to make them go away. Gaara, who was watching silently with an amused expression and a blush on his face, let the sand back into his gourd.
"Good morning," he said sheepishly as Shikamaru turned to look at him.
Shikamaru's initial anger and frustration changed into a content smile as he realized who had woken him.
"Good morning," he replied. "You're up already? I thought you'd have wanted to sleep in a bit longer." He stood up and stretched his stiff muscles.
"I'm a light sleeper," Gaara mumbled. He looked over at the still sleeping form of his sibling. Shikamaru followed his gaze. "Kankuro, on the other hand, can stay asleep until well past noon."
Shikamaru smiled. "Well, let's get ready then; it's already nine. I'm sure Sasuke's already up."
"Shikamaru," Gaara stopped him. "I wanted to thank you for last night. That meant a lot."
The lazy ninja smiled. "It's no problem. Your sleep is more important than anything else."
Gaara felt his cheeks go red at this and he was glad the lights weren't on. With the comfortable silence between them, the two of them took turned using the common bathroom and finally get ready.
Shikamaru left their room after he finished and silently made his way down the hall to where Sasuke and Naruto's room was.
He opened the door and took a peak inside to confirm his suspicions about the early-rising raven. The sight of the room lit his face up into a smile.
Naruto and Sasuke were both cuddled up on the raven's bed, fast asleep. Sasuke had his arms wrapped protectively around the blonde, and the latter was snuggled up beside him in response to the touch.
Deciding to let them be, the lazy ninja closed the door and turned to head the stairs.
"AAACHOOO!"
Shikamaru froze in his tracks. He then turned around and ran towards the course of the cry, his heart beating frantically with worry as he realized the sound had come from his room.
He barged in and looked around, trying to locate the disturbance. What he found shocked him to say the least.
Kankuro was underneath his bundle of sheets, waving his arms around his head. Gaara stood near his bed, his arms crossed and a smile on his face.
Shikamaru did a double take and then let out a ring of laughter. Apparently, Gaara had just tried to wake up his brother in the same manner he had with Shikamaru.
He continued to chuckle to himself as he watched the siblings' argument unfold before him.
It was a rare occasion when – or if – Gaara ever laughed. It was a good change and apparently Kankuro thought so, too, because after a few minutes he had calmed down and joined in the fun.
"I have to admit," he said. "That was a good one." And as an afterthought, he added, "You better watch your back; I'll make sure to get my revenge!"
He reluctantly got out of bed and made his way towards the bathroom to get ready. Shikamaru could hear the others starting to get up as well. An idea struck him and he motioned for the redhead to follow him.
They walked up to a certain Uchiha's bedroom. The lazy ninja put a finger to his lips and quietly opened the door.
He raven and the blonde were in the same position as before; cuddled up beside each other. The lazy and conniving ninja pointed towards the two in bed. In turn, the redhead gave a curt nod and Shikamaru saw the sand making its way over to the other side of the room.
Shikamaru knew that this was the type of thing that Kiba would most likely do. He smirked inwardly at the beating he knew the dog owner would get for this. When Gaara was ready, he took a hold of the dazed out genius and pulled him outside the bedroom. Their skin burned with the contact.
"Wait, there's one more thing missing," Shikamaru said, and he walked off.
He was back a few minutes later with a very confused looking Kiba who had clearly just gotten out of bed. Gaara nodded again, this time a smile playing at his lips. He held up his hand counting down: 5…4…3…2…
"Aaaachooo!"
"Arrgh!"
"What the hell?"
"Dobe! Was this your idea of a joke? And what the hell are you doing? Get off me!"
"It's not my fault! I think something just went up my nose!" his voice was hysterical.
"You – what?! What do you mean something up your nose? Stop being dobe, dobe!"
"Shut up teme! I'm serious1 I never just randomly start sneezing, y'know?"
"You're just being paranoid. Now do you mind getting off my bed?" there was a pause. "Look what you did, dobe!"
"Huh? I didn't do anything!"
"Oh, sure, then where did all this sand come from?" Sasuke snapped sarcastically.
By now, Shikamaru and Gaara were trying very hard not to let out a laugh. Kiba, on the hand was just about to burst out of laughter as he continued to listen to the argument between the two ninja from the other side of closed door.
"What? Me? Why would I bring sand into my own bedroom?"
"I don't know! But I guess that's what made me sneeze. It tickled my nose!" he let out a whine.
"Whatever, this must have been someone's idea of a joke," Sasuke muttered.
"Ahahaha!" Kiba had started laughing now.
"Who's that?" Sasuke sounded annoyed.
Next minute, the door was opened and there stood the blonde and raven clad in their pajamas and sporting a very bad attitude.
"Hahaha, oh that was priceless!" Kiba doubled over, trying to control his laughter.
Unknown to him, Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look.
"We are so getting you back for that!" Naruto said.
"What? But it wasn't--" his laugher had died down now.
"Just watch your step, dog breath; you might never know what may happen."
"Guys, I said it wasn't me!" It was--" he looked beside him, but no one was there. Oh shit.
"Who? Who was it? You're imaginary dog friend? I don't see anyone."
"Leave it dobe, after I'm through with hi m, he won't be saying another word," Sasuke said, his voice laced with anger.
The door closed and Kiba could faintly hear the two arguing about who would get their revenge first.
Oh, that's it! Those two are done for, Kiba thought as he planned out what to do to get his revenge against Shikamaru and Gaara.
One by one, everyone got dressed and headed for the kitchen, their stomachs grumbling. It was a surprise for everyone when they reached the doorway of the kitchen to find that breakfast was already ready and waiting for them.
"Oh, that smells like heaven!" Kiba said as he and Akamaru waltzed in.
"Yeah, it better smell like heaven to you after all our hard work," Ino said as she went over to get the toast.
"How long have you been up? This must have taken a while," Kiba asked as he joined the others at the table. He distinctly noticed that both Shikamaru and Gaara refused to meet his eyes.
"Since about six I guess," Sakura said, pouring tea into their cups. "I heard some loud noises and shouting upstairs; what happened?" She looked pointedly at a certain blonde who was pigging out at the food on his plate. Naruto seemed to not notice this.
"Some mutt decided it was a good idea to pour sand all over my bed, and it made him," Sasuke motioned towards the blonde. "Sneeze."
"Naruto sneezed because the sand was on your bed?" Neiji asked, taking a bite out of his piece of toast.
Sasuke had to work hard to school his expression and stop the blush from spreading any further. "Something like that…" He mumbled, looking down at his tea.
"It wasn't me!" Kiba cried out. "Those two," he pointed at the two who had woken him up, "are the ones who did it! I was just an innocent bystander."
Everyone looked over at Shikamaru and Gaara.
"You expect us to believe they're the ones who did it?" Shino asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Next time you want to frame someone, Kiba, pick a more likely candidate, and do it properly," said an annoyed Neiji.
Everyone let out a chuckle and before Kiba could get any more worked up about it, Naruto spoke up: "What's the plan today, guys?"
"Well, I was hoping to spend some of the morning wrapping some presents. I didn't get a change to get finish them before," Sakura explained.
"Yeah, same here," Temari added. "I didn't get much of a chance since we had to leave in a hurry."
"Okay, what about everyone else?"
"Anyone up for a game of Shogi?" Shikamaru asked, his head propped up on his hand, and leaning on the table.
"Shogi? This early? You've got to be kidding!"
"I'll play," Gaara said suddenly, looking beside him at the lazy ninja.
"You're both weird! Playing Shogi so early in the morning just makes me sleepy," Kiba grumbled, apparently having forgotten about the morning prank.
"Kiba, it's only nine in the morning…" Ino said, exasperated.
"Exactly! And it's the holidays; that's pretty early if you ask me."
"What about everyone else?" Neiji asked, ignoring Kiba's grumbling.
"How about a snowball fight? The storm's over and there's tons of snow!"
"Naruto, it's cold outside. I, for one, don't want to stop out there," Ino said, shuddering at the thought of spending the day outside.
"That's what coats are for. Everyone knows that!"
"I know what coats are for, but I don't want to go out!"
"I think it would be nice. We can think of it as training," Kankuro joined in.
"In that case, I guess I'll come too."
"Hmm, yeah, count me in."
"Awesome! So, that's Kankuro, Neiji, and Shino, what about you guys?" Naruto nodded in the direction of where Lee, Shoji and Tenten were sitting.
The three of them nodded and the blonde gave a huge in return. Then, he looked beside him and nudged the brooding raven-haired boy.
"What, dobe?"
"Don't call me that!"
"Then don't poke people."
"I was trying to get your attention!"
"You don't need to try, you already have it!" at this, the table fell silent, staring at the Uchiha. Sasuke felt himself going red so he quickly added, "…since you're so annoying."
Damn, that was close…
"Fine, then I guess I won't bother asking if you want a snowball fight or not," Naruto replied, not noticing the meaning of what Sasuke almost let slip.
"Dobe, it's my house; I can do whatever I want."
The blonde blanched at this. "Er…well…not if we don't let you!"
"Naruto, it's pointless to argue with him," Kiba butt in. "So, who else? I'm coming as well, by the way."
"You can count us out," Ino replied. "Hinata and I have a surprise treat planned for everyone. Sakura and Temari will be joined us when they're done with presents."
"O…kay…"
"I won't be staying for the whole thing, either. I'm going to come back in and help out," Tenten added.
When they finally finished eating and had cleaned up the kitchen, everyone went up to get dressed for the cold weather. A while later, when they were all ready, everyone went off to where they were to spend most of the morning.
All the boys, except for Shikamaru and Gaara, along with Tenten headed out to the grand garden at the back of the Uchiha complex.
"Let's split up into teams. We can have three groups of three," Kiba proposed as Akamaru started leaping around in the snow, wagging his tail in anticipation.
"Okay! I get Kiba and Tenten!" Naruto shouted.
"And I shall be with Choji and Shino."
"So, that leaved ms, Sasuke and Neiji," Kankuro said.
"Alright! It's all out war no! Just you wait teme! I'll get my revenge!" Naruto yelled across the yard as he fisted his snowball. He threw the ball of snow at Sasuke who ducked.
"Hey!" Choji cried out as the snowball struck his side.
"Oh, sorry Choji –" the blonde was cut off when a snowball struck his face. Sasuke smirked. His aim was always perfect.
And so they continued for an hour and half until finally Kiba shouted, "Everyone gang up on Naruto!"
Naruto, who was currently trying to rid his backside of snow, looked up in surprise, "What?! KIBA YOU TRAITOR!" He couldn't get another word out since he was bombarded with the cold snow flying in from all directions.
Hope you liked it! If you noticed any mistakes please let me know so that I can fix them when I get the chance. I can assure you that things will get much more interesting in the next chapter. I think I'll be able to have that up by next week.
Oh yeah, if you haven't watched Naruto the Abridged series on youtube, then it might help if you do for the next chapter. There's a scence that refers to a certain part in the series. And also...if you can think of any good truth or dare questions then let me know. I think that's a good enough hint for what's to come.
Continue reviewing, I really appreciate it!
UPDATE: I must confess that I haven't gotten much time to update this story. I have been busy with a handful of academic work, but I assure you, I have not abandoned the fic and it will be updated in the next several days.