A/N: Alright, now to get this bad boy underway. Here we introduce some supporting characters and learn a little more about Naruto.
Warnings: this story contains tons of yaoi goodness, but not necessarily this chapter. Be patient my lovelies - it will happen soon enough
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, I know - it is sad, but it is the unfortunate truth.
"Why did I do this to myself?" Naruto wondered aloud as he stumbled into his 8:00 am Organic Chemistry class.
"Or better yet, why would they offer an advanced chemistry class this early in the morning?" Naruto heard a voice behind him chime in on his musings.
The blond turned to see his husky classmate follow him through the doorway, "Hey Choji," the blond greeted through a yawn, "haven't seen you since calculus, how've you been?"
Choji shrugged, "alright, nothing new really."
They took their seats about half way from the front of the room, next to the wall. Naruto preferred this position in most his classrooms; it allowed him to be close enough to feign interest in the teacher while giving him a decent view of the rest of the class. This was a mid level chemistry course and only enrolled about 50 students, many of whom Naruto had seen in at least one of the prerequisite courses.
Naruto struggled to maintain consciousness as the silver-haired professor introduced the class material. His buddy Kiba had taken this class last semester and warned Naruto about the instructor. Professor Kakashi Hatake was a bit "eccentric", as Kiba had put it, and Naruto didn't want to get on his bad side. The man seemed nice enough, wearing a cheerful expression, but the way he hid his face behind a turtleneck was a little disconcerting. His concerns were suddenly justified as the instructor, mid sentence, slammed a yard stick down next to a dozing student. The poor kid flew up in his chair, slamming a knee into the desk before falling backwards. Kakashi didn't even bat an eyelash as he continued his lecture. Naruto's heart thumped wildly in his chest, all thoughts of sleeping now erased from his mind.
The class began to wind down and students started to pack up their things, "for those of you continuing on to this morning's lab section, it will be upstairs, room 245, in 15 minutes," the professor announced as he gathered up his papers.
Naruto groaned and gently laid his head on the desk. He turned to the side and eyed the handiwork of the students that "wuz" here before him. Again he wondered what had compelled him to take an early morning chemistry class followed directly by a lab. The blond managed to pull his head up, the inertia of the action causing it to fall backwards once he was fully sitting up again. His eyes rolled back and he stared sideways out the door. Choji laughed at the pathetic display and made his way down the aisle, motioning for Naruto to follow.
A small group of students, a little over a dozen, milled around the lab. Naruto took a seat at the station with the best view and watched as an early autumn breeze rustled the yellowing leaves of the tree just outside the window. The class fell silent as the TA entered the room and shut the door. Naruto got the feeling that Iruka was not really that happy with the idea of teaching a lab, he performed his duties downstairs with little enthusiasm and that translated into unconcealed disdain as he organized his materials for the lab.
"This is the lab section for chem 234," the man said without looking up, "if you are in here it means you have taken at least two chemistry classes before so I expect you should know how a lab works by now. Just in case you have forgotten I will go over the basics," he finally looked up to the class, "your shit goes back there," he pointed to the shelves and hooks at the back of the room, "and all food goes either there," he pointed to the door, "or there," he motioned to the trash can, "you will be working with a partner throughout the semester. If you have a problem with your partner let them know, if you continue to have a problem you can tell me, but it may result in both students receiving low marks."
The class seemed to share an uncomfortable glance as they listened to the TA. The man looked easy going enough; pleasant features strangely enhanced by the mark that crossed over the bridge of his nose, his hair pulled back into a short ponytail – maybe his bark was worse than his bite.
"Alright," he clapped his hands, "line up at the back. When I call your name come forward, get your syllabus and meet your new best friend."
The students moved in unison to the back of the room and waited patiently for their names to be called. Naruto stood, slightly amused with the TA's mannerisms – he knew that, if nothing else, this class would likely be entertaining. His mood faltered a bit when he realized the partners were being picked alphabetically, as always he would be among the last students to get his assignment. Usually he ended up with a Thompson or a Williams. He glanced around the dwindling group of students and pursed his lips at the sight of a familiar blond ponytail on the other side of the room. He'd had the misfortune of being paired up with Yamanaka in a biology class last year. Ino was a smart girl, and nice enough, but she was completely self-centered and it was a challenge to get her to focus.
Three other students stood against the far wall, waiting for their fate to be sealed, "Uchiha Sasuke," a dark-haired boy moved forward. The tanned boy breathed a sigh of relief, "Uzumaki Naruto." He pushed off the wall and walked to the front of the room. Collecting his packet, he gave a nod to his new partner – it was not reciprocated.
The two boys took their seats at one of the few remaining stations. Naruto eyed the pale boy; black hair, longer in the front than the back, framed his face and obsidian eyes scrutinized the syllabus. His features were sharp and flawless. He must have felt the gaze on him, Naruto blinked and looked away quickly when the boy arched an eyebrow and turned his eyes to the blond.
Iruka was moving from station to station passing out index cards, "fill these out with your name and contact information as well as anything else you think may be pertinent," he handed a card to the blond, "for example, if you have a sensitive sense of smell and require sitting next to an open window in addition to having the fume hood on – please let me know so I can seat you properly before you pass out in my lab."
Naruto snorted, he'd forgotten Kiba had told him that happened. Iruka shot the blond a glare, "sorry," he mumbled and turned his attention to the index card.
The TA made another round and picked up the cards, "Alright," Iruka said as he made his way back to the front of the class, "I am going to make copies of these, you may use this time to get to know one another. When I get back we will run through the basics, I want to make sure you all know how to not blow this place up."
Iruka exited the room, which after about a millisecond burst to life with the sound of students introducing themselves, laughing and complaining. Naruto decided to try to engage his partner in conversation, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto," he said above the cacophony, leaning back against the table.
The pale boy sat back, clearly irritated. He looked Naruto up and down contemplatively, "Uzumaki?" he questioned, obviously confused by the disparity between Naruto's name and his clearly European features.
This wasn't the first time somebody had been perturbed when they discovered that the tan boy with bright yellow hair and deep blue eyes had a Japanese name, "Uh, yeah, I'm adopted," the response he was very used to saying by now, "how about you Uchiha, were you born in the states?"
The pale boy's expression turned from indifferent to annoyed, "I moved when I was eight."
Naruto considered a follow up question, but decided that would likely be too painful for his partner to endure. Instead he decided to speculate about the pale boy. He appeared very conservative at first, sporting a white button up shirt and black slacks – likely a throwback to a private high school. However, the shirt was untucked, the top couple buttons had been left undone and the sleeves were rolled up to the elbows. The feature that really had Naruto confused were the boy's shoes. By the time his eyes had gotten to the Uchiha's feet he had expected to see loafers, but was surprised to find black chucks. Interesting, he thought, there might be more to this guy than a stuck up prick. The double entendre had Naruto chuckling to himself.
Iruka returned to the class which slowly started to quiet down as he passed out copies of the student contact information. Naruto took the paper and glanced down; name and phone number, that was all the Uchiha had written down. Sasuke furrowed his brow as he looked at his partner's contact sheet. Under the name, phone number, address and email was the list of "important information":
I am a Libra, my favorite color is orange and I live on ramen.
Sasuke snorted inadvertently, Naruto wasn't sure if it was a punctuated chuckle or a sound of annoyance. The raven-haired boy made no further comment as he folded the paper precisely and placed it in his notebook. Naruto watched the pale boy as he handled the contact sheet, his dexterous long fingers creasing the paper; he swore he could see the remnants of black nail polish along the cuticles of his otherwise perfectly manicured digits. He shook the idea from his head, there was no way this kid would wear nail polish.
The lab assignment seemed to be going smoothly, it was mostly getting acquainted with the equipment and making sure all the students knew how to tell if the gas was on. Before leaving each pair had to demonstrate their proficiency by performing a series of inane tasks.
"You seem pretty comfortable with all these beakers and shit," Naruto offered, attempting to break the silence that had grown between him and his partner. No response, screw it, he decided to have a conversation even if the dark-haired boy didn't want to, "I work at a lab so I am used to working with this kind of stuff, although it is more pipettes and centrifuges." This was a half truth, Naruto did work at a lab, but it was mostly as a gopher – delivering supplies, reports and specimens between the departments, "it is a pretty neat gig," he continued, "we do pathology reports and special blood tests and genetic tests."
The blond was too caught up in his one sided conversation to realize he hadn't secured the thermometer fully onto the beaker. He moved his hands away from the beaker to turn on the gas but could not return them in time once he noticed the apparatus had begun to tilt. Naruto hollered obscenities as the beaker, its contents and the thermometer came crashing down.
Sasuke sent a furious glare at the blond as a sparse applause broke out around the room. Naruto grimaced and stepped back as Iruka moved toward the station.
"Nice job Uzumaki, I was wondering how long it would take before noxious materials were spilled," the TA said dryly as he eyed the mercury beads that had formed on the table. He looked at his watch, "43 minutes, I expected more out a 200 level class."
Naruto stood scratching the back of his head, a sheepish grin adorned his flushed face. His eyes darted nervously between the TA and the Uchiha, not quite sure which man seemed more irritated, "Sorry," he finally muttered.
With the mess cleaned up and crisis seemingly averted the students began to pack up for the day. The blond took off his protective glasses – he had bought his own after he spent a semester squinting behind the scratched up lenses of the ancient goggles the school provided – and shoved them into his bag along with his notebook. He picked up one final piece of paper, the Uchiha's contact info, and paused for a moment before shoving it into the front pocket.
"Hey so, I'm sorry abou– " the tanned boy was cut off.
"What lab did you say you worked at?" the pale boy asked, not bothering to look at Naruto as he took off his own glasses.
"What? Why?" the blond blinked in confusion.
"I just want to make sure I never have the misfortune of having any tests ran there." the pale boy retorted with a smug smirk before turning to walk out the room.
Stupid fucking Uchiha, the blond thought, the voice in his head so loud he thought he might actually be talking to himself. Naruto walked off campus while he ranted. Who the fuck does he think he is? Does he really think he is that much better than everybody else? The blond was making his way through the adjacent neighborhoods without a conscious effort and before he realized where he was, he had put down his bag and pressed his back into a chain link fence.
The guy is such a prick, he was becoming more and more irritated as his inner monologue continued to discuss the raven-haired boy, "Seriously, I don't think I have ever met anybody who was so damn unpleasant," he didn't even notice when he started to talk out loud, "too fucking good to be bothered with polite conversation, I mean really, who is like that? Who can spend an entire day sneering and refusing to give more than a single syllabus response?"
"Umm...I don't know Naruto, who?" Kiba stood on the other side of the fence, amused at the one sided conversation he seemed to stumble upon. This wasn't the first time Naruto had come to visit him at work and it certainly wasn't the first time said visit involved a conversation that was more introspective than interactive.
The blond turned around, lacing his fingers between the wires of the fence, "This bastard in my chem lab, my new fucking partner." Kiba chuckled at the poorly worded statement, "oh shut up," the blond spat.
"Sorry Naruto, so what's the deal with – HEY DON'T EAT THAT!" the spiky-haired brunet chased after a fluffy black dog that had turned his attention to the business he had just finished making.
Kiba worked part time at a kennel close to campus. It was a pretty sweet gig for the pre vet student – he got to spend the whole day just hanging out with dogs while their owners were either at work or out of town. It wasn't like his stint at the animal shelter which had been thoroughly depressing. This was like day camp for the dogs, it was very laid back – hardly even work really.
Naruto just shrugged as Kiba shooed the canine away and moved to pick up the poop, "I don't know what his deal is, maybe he is just an asshole. I was just being myself and he was acting like my presence was actually causing him physical pain. I think I could have thrown acid on him and it would have been a relief."
"I don't know Naruto, I mean we both know how awesome you are – how lucky anybody would be to spend a few precious seconds with you," Naruto glared at Kiba's attempt at humor, "I'm just saying you can be a bit much some times, maybe he is just put off by your personality."
The blond considered this for a moment before shaking his head, "I don't think so. I wasn't being obnoxious...I don't think," he thought for another moment, "nope. I was just being friendly."
Kiba smirked. Naruto had many versions of friendly. There was "nice to meet you" friendly, "I need a favor" friendly, "hey there good looking" friendly, "I am fucking wasted" friendly and "genuinely caring" friendly – just to name a few.
"Well then fuck him," Naruto smirked at this and Kiba furrowed his brow, surprised he had allowed that to come out, "I mean, so what if doesn't want to be your friend, not everybody in the world has to be Uzumaki Naruto's friend. Just be cordial and get through the semester. It's an hour a week, I am sure you can handle it."
The blond nodded, his eyes looking up as he sorted his thoughts, "No, I think you were right the first time," he said as he picked up this bag.
"Wait, which part? The 'Naruto is super awesome' or the 'fuck him' part?" Kiba called out as the blond turned and began to walk away.
"Thanks Kiba, I have to get back to campus, see you later," the tanned boy called out over his shoulder as he continued to move away.
Kiba sighed and stared down at the fluffy dog at his feet. And so the drama begins, he thought as he crouched to meet the canine's stare. He laughed as the dog affectionately licked the red marks on his cheeks.