XD I'm so glad ya'll seemed to like it! Thanks to all of those who reviewed. It made me happy. One particular review made by YamiTenshi seriously had me laughing so hard I ran to the bathroom... So thank you!

I had a "free day" so I was able to write this! O.O Awesomes.

If you couldn't tell by the last chapter... I'm a total chemistry lover. And I think I must have been on crack to think loud Naruto would be the solution to Gaara's fierce headaches... Not that I do crack or anything! I've been thinking updates might become twice a week. This story just kind of rolls out. I'm already working on chapter three. O.o Fer reals.

Oh yeah NOTE: I don't own these characters. :P This is an AU fic with BL


Chapter Two
Anthem Of A Seventeen Year-Old

Naruto still didn't want to leave. They had already arrived, sort of settled, paid rent and Naruto still didn't want to leave the little town he had grown up in. And he definitely didn't want to move to the city. The air smelt different here. It tasted different too. But Naruto didn't say much about that. Sulking was his cousin Sasuke's job, not his. So when Itachi pulled the moving van into the drive way, the blond had put on his best smile and tried to think of all the positive things this move must have.

Thankfully, when he couldn't think of any, his smile was already stuck and he didn't give his disappointment away. The ray of light was always so easy for him to find usually. This time, all he could think about was the thinks he had to leave behind. His friends Sakura and Shikamaru, his old hangouts and... his Dad. Itachi had said they could always come back on the anniversary and visit. Itachi would even let them stay the night. But somehow, it wasn't the same.

The drive to the loud, stinky and crowded city took entirely too long. They had left at ten that morning and hadn't arrived until seven that evening. And that was way too long for anyone to stay cooped up in a car. Especially Naruto.

At all of Naruto's urging, Sasuke had been forced to pull over for several restroom and snack breaks, losing sight of Itachi more than once, loud singing that resulted in the car swerving and the blonds head thumping against the window several times, and after a fist fight finally broke out between the two, Naruto had been forced to ride in the stuffy moving van with his oldest cousin for an hour. Needless to say, this whole 'moving-to-the-city-and-starting-over' thing wasn't starting out too well.

The apartment was nice. Slightly smaller than the house they lived in back home, but that house had been too big. It had been made for a family... not two teenagers and their legal guardian. The apartment was just right. Too bad Naruto had already decided to hate it. Because as much as he tried to deny it, the place was pretty cool. Itachi smiled and directed them toward the side of the apartment their rooms were on. "Don't even try fighting over them. The rooms are exactly alike. The paint, the details, the size. Even the view is the same. If it breaks into a fight I'm making you both go to school tomorrow."

Sasuke scowled as Naruto finally cracked a genuine smile and headed down the hall Itachi pointed down. Carrying a box under his arm, walked through the last door in the hall and almost dropped it.

It was beautiful. The lights shining through the window seemed a lot like the stars he thought would disappear from view in the city. True they weren't the stars really, but it was pretty enough to make him tear up slightly. He sniffed loudly and put the box down gently. Okay. So maybe this was a sign things here wouldn't be so bad. A sudden crash from the living room made his head drop instantly.

"NARUTO!"

Strike that. Things were gonna be worse.

After being scolded about the stow-away toad (Seriously it was one toad! Just ONE!) the three men worked almost through the entire night pulling furniture into the elevator, out again, and pulling it through the hallways. Not to mention one of them had to stay by the truck to make sure nothing got stolen. The night was officially becoming the worst night in Naruto's whole seventeenth year and when the entire truck finally emptied the doorman decided that was the perfect time to tell them the building actually had movers. Naruto had to smirk at his cousins. That poor jerk would probably be unable to go anywhere alone in the dark for the next year.

The blond could hear his raven hair cousin rummaging around in his room next door, but found the only thing he had energy for was flopping onto his bed face first. And when the frame, which he had forgotten he hadn't screwed together, collapsed, he didn't even have the energy to scream or snap at Sasuke's loud snort from his doorway. "Night dobe."

"Fuck you teme." And that was Naruto's last thought the first night in his new room.

-

"Ah, Prince Charming awakens." Itachi smiled. "And he comes halfway unclothed already. A man after my own heart." Naruto scratched his head not even trying to figure out what the man was getting at. He yawned and shuffled forward towards the wonderful smell of coffee. His search took him a good five minutes before Sasuke held out the shiny ceramic mug. Naruto grinned and reached for his cup, but the dark haired boy pulled it away last moment making his blond cousin fall flat on his face.

"What was that for you bastard!?" Naruto screamed as he jumped back to his feet, all the clinging sleep finally knocked away.

"First: Button up your pants. Second: pull your arm through the arm hole in your shirt. Third: Go brush your teeth." Itachi laughed lightly as his younger brother counted off all the things wrong with the blonds appearance this morning. Naruto looked down. Indeed somehow during the night his pants had become undone and were now hanging dangerously on his hips. His arm did have issues with the hole it was supposed to be in and had slithered it's way out, pushing the white fabric up onto his shoulder and exposing his tanned stomach. And he had forgotten to brush his teeth before he passed out. He pouted and turned to walk to the bathroom but paused and turned to the arrogant youth with a sly grin that made his entire face seem to glow.

"Whats the matter? All my piping hot sexiness too much for your virgin eyes Princess?" Naruto heard and felt Itachi spit hot coffee everywhere in a fine mist before the blond took off at high speed for the bathroom, eager to escape the murderous look the raven haired boy directed at him in that moment. Naruto had to hold his jeans up with one hand as he ran and barely slammed the door shut before something shattered against it seconds later, seeming to hit exactly where his head leaned against the door.

Naruto smirked and turned to the mirror. Today just might be an awesome day.

-

"Do you always have to look like a glowing carrot?" Sasuke growled then next day as they walked up the steps of the grey brick building that would be there holding cell for the next few months. They had already registered yesterday and spent the rest of the day unpacking things Naruto would have preferred stay in boxes until Itachi realized this was a mistake and they should go back. Unfortunately that seemed highly unlikely and, as the final boxes were crushed and sent down the garbage shoot, the blond seemed to accept his fate.

Naruto flashed him a giant smile. "As long as you have to look like someone who crawled out of a nightmare." He laughed and did his best impression of what was supposed to be the chick from The Ring. It wasn't very impressive. It was at the moment Naruto's tongue tried to wiggle up to his nose and his chin set itself in a weird angle, that a tall blond girl decided to walk up.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki right?" She asked eyeing Naruto like he had the plague. She didn't know if his tongue and face where naturally that way or if the kid was just a loser. Sasuke elbowed his cousin hard in the stomach and the blond snapped out of whatever wierd daydream he had fallen into. "I'm Ino." Her eyes lingered longer than necessary on the pale boy while barely sparing Naruto a second. "Your schedules." She smiled brilliantly handing over two pale cards. "I'll show you around the campus then take you to your classes." Naruto grinned at the two and Sasuke threw him a look that screamed 'Don't you even dare!'

"I think I shouldn't be late to..." He stole a glance down at the manilla card and groaned internally. "chemistry. Love them chemicals and all!" He smiled. "You two have fun!" He called trying to fight the urge to laugh at the other boys obvious discomfort. Serves the jerk right for being so damn pretty and shit. He dashed up the stairs quickly and down the hall, his cream color messenger bag didn't even have time to slap against his leg. '425. This is it.' Naruto's eyes caught the number quickly and he dove for it without even thinking of slowing down.

The heavy metal door slammed against the wall with a monstrous bang. 'Oh yeah. On a roll.' He thought sarcastically and ended up shouting his next line without meaning too. "Sorry I'm late. This stupid building is huge!" And his grin couldn't help but follow. It even grew as he realized all eyes were on him. He walked immediately up to the tall man that put Sasuke's pasty skin color to shame. The man gave him a smile that made a shiver run down his spine and only pointed to the back.

Naruto wasted no time walking back to the only open seat, taking in the young man he'd be seated next to for the next few weeks. He stunning. His hair was a violent shade of red that contrasted nicely with the boys peculiar green-blue eyes, which were currently glaring at the teacher and framed heavily in black make-up. Naruto smiled at the beautiful boy and pulled his chair out loudly and threw his bag on the table.

Like his dad had once said 'When you want to make a memorable impression, be as loud as you can.'

Or something like that.

Maybe it wasn't even his dad who said it. Naruto couldn't be sure.

"Poor kid's gonna die." A brunette whispered from the front of the room glancing back at Naruto with a grin. Naruto smiled back and turned to his apparent lab partner, about to ask him what they were doing when his voice died in his throat. The green-blue eyes were locked on his, making it hard for him to breathe. 'Whoa.' was Naruto's only thought as he looked at the red head. The boy was thin, possibly thinner than Sasuke who was the skinniest boy Naruto had ever met. His body seemed dominated by the color black. Black and red vans almost covered by the jeans that clung to the boys legs like a second skin before flaring out slightly at the calf. He wore a black fishnet undershirt topped by a deep red, almost black, long sleeve tee shirt pushed up to the elbows. Pale skin that was almost perfect. Almost because it looked like the stunning red hair seemed to be covering some kind of scar.

"Name's Naruto!" He shouted, unable to help his volume at this point, and thrust his hand out towards the boy. The red head looked away and grabbed a glass beaker and a bottle from the supplies in front of him. "So, uh, what's yours?" He tried again, letting his hand fall. 'Please tell me your name at least!' He found himself begging mentally and green-blue eyes flashed to him.

Naruto looked away quickly before his eyes could look into the others again. The eyes were unnerving. They felt like they looked through you, to your soul. Naruto shivered and caught the entire class staring at the two of them. The red head mumbled something, but Naruto was busy staring at the faces that seemed afraid over the kids shoulder. The dark kid got agitated, said "Open it" and Naruto felt something brush against his hand.

Naruto sensed the red heads eyes on him, but couldn't look away from the teachers suddenly sadistic grin until the kids head got in the way as he looked over his shoulder to see what was so damn interesting. Naruto watched the red head observe the class for a moment before his body went rigid and the whipped around to face the blond, pulling him up to him by his shirt, inches from his face. Naruto felt his heart speed up as the green-blue eyes locked onto him, searching him for minutes before an emotion that seemed like relief swept through his eyes, making them more green than blue for a moment, and the red head went limp without warning.

Naruto's arms caught the boy easily and held him there for a minute. What the hell just happened?

"You overloaded his brain!!" The brunette from earlier shouted as he jumped from his table in the front. The class suddenly burst into murmurs.

Naruto felt his heart speed up. "What?!"

"Get him to the nurse." The teacher said calmly, looking more annoyed than concerned. "Kiba. Help him." The brunette walked over to them and went to grab one of the unconscious boys arms but Naruto swung the red head onto his back easily. Kiba shrugged and motioned for Naruto to follow him. As they came to the first set of stairs the brunette started laughing uncontrollably. Naruto felt bad as he began to shake with silent laughter as well. He had no idea what was so funny, but the kids laughter was infectious.

"I seriously thought you would be the one we'd be taking down to the nurses office, if not calling an ambulance for your body." Kiba said as his laughter moved to a chuckle. Naruto felt one eyebrow go up and before he could ask the boy started talking again. "Gaara doesn't like noises. He's beat up several 'loud' kids. And you are, by far, the loudest kid I'm sure Gaara has ever met. He wasn't like that before but his friend Temari says he's been having real bad headaches lately and noises and lights make it worse. After you slammed that door earlier I thought you were toast." The kid laughed again. "I'm Kiba by the way."

"Naruto." The blond answered, taking the hand Kiba offered. "So... his name is Gaara?" He asked pointing to the completely limp boy on his back.

"Yeah. Do ya think you killed him?" The boy asked poking the red heads cheek, Gaara growled at that exact moment and both the boys jumped, but the unconscious boy nuzzled his face further into Naruto's neck and the blond felt himself blush as Gaara's lips brushed against his skin. Quiet filled the hallways as they made their way to the nurses office which, of course, had to be on the first floor. Naruto's cheeks flamed every time someone came across them, eyes widening in fear or narrowing in amusement.

"Here we are." Kiba whispered holding the glass door open for him. Naruto smiled and made his way over to the bed to lay Gaara down quickly before his legs gave out. "Tsunade!" The brunette called out quietly and went through another glass door. Naruto heard someone answer before they were cut off by a loud "I think the new kid killed Gaara."

Naruto sweat dropped. "I didn't kill 'em!" He shouted loudly. At least Kiba hadn't wasted time.

A tall blond woman with an impressive chest came out immediately and Naruto took that as his cue to get away, but as he went to step away from the red heads body, a pale hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Naruto yelped and tried to remove the hand before the red head could sit up and beat the hell out of him. But no matter how hard he tried, the hand wasn't letting him go. Even as the nurse began checking him over and started asking Naruto questions the hand didn't let go and the boy did not get up. "What happened?"

"I donno. He looked at me, then passed out." Naruto's mouth fumbled the words out as he began to wonder if the kid had had superglue on his hands.

"Just passed out?" The woman asked watching Naruto struggle with the hand, an amused expression taking over her face.

"Uh, damn, yeah." Naruto swore under his breath. "He was looking at me one minute, the next his eyes got happy and rolled back into his head. CAN SOMEONE HELP ME HERE?!"

The three of them worked for a minute trying to separate the boys but ended up making the dead-to-the-world kids hand tighten uncomfortably. Naruto yelped again, made them back off and the hand relaxed slightly, but still refused to let him go. "Kiba get..."

"Naruto." The blond smiled.

"Naruto a chair. You're just going to have to wait until he wakes up." The blond sighed and threw himself into the chair as soon as Kiba brought one close enough. "Sorry. Looks like your stuck here. Shouldn't be long though. Gaara isn't known for his sleeping skills." Naruto's eyes opened slightly as the woman said that. "I'll have some one bring down your things. If you'll excuse me, I have to call Gaara's guardian." And with that the nurse returned to her office. Kiba smirked and threw an arm over Naruto's shoulder.

"Ah. Just when I thought school was gonna die down, you show up and throw every thing off." Kiba slapped the blond on the back roughly. "I'm gonna head back to class. You just hold his hand and tell him everything's gonna be alright." He laughed at Naruto's bright blush and skipped out of the room, dodging the feet Naruto was throwing at him.

The blond sighed and watched the sleeping red head. "Gaara huh?" His fingers brushed lightly over the hand that had a death grip on his wrist. The pale boy sighed and rolled onto his side throwing Naruto over him without any effort. The blond felt his face heat up and wondered if his head could explode from blushing too much. Hopefully not. He shook off that thought and pulled himself back into the chair, making Gaara roll back onto his back.

Naruto stared at the beautiful boy and wondered what his parents must look like. They must be beautiful. They had too be. Beautiful people usually had parents that were equally beautiful or even more beautiful. Somehow Naruto doubted anyone could be more beautiful than Gaara. Was his hair naturally that red? How did he come across such stunning eyes? And why the hell was he thinking all these wierd things? Another blush stained his face as he looked at the sleeping boy. You could call another guy beautiful without being gay right? Uh, right. The blond mentally cursed at his brains hesitation to answer his own question and closed his eyes.

'Who cares? Gaara is down right gorgeous.'

-

Despite what the nurse had said, Gaara continued to sleep for hours. And as the end of the school day drew closer, Naruto began to worry if he would be stuck there after hours. Cause that would totally suck. He had given some serious thought to sawing off his own hand with a protractor when his thoughts about Gaara had become a little... different, but Tsunade had come in, taken the plastic math tool away before Naruto had even drawn blood and smacked the blond across the head. She didn't have to get so bent outta shape. Naruto had known you couldn't amputate an arm with a plastic protractor... or, at least, he did now.

Naruto sighed. Ten more minutes. Ten more minutes and the final bell would ring. And as he began debating dragging the red head home with him, a soft moan caught his attention. He fought the blush the moan started and turned back to the boy. The blond unconsciously bit the side of his lip as a soft pink tongue slid out from between the two pale lips and ran it painfully slow around them. Naruto shuddered but couldn't bring himself to look away. And as those peculiar green-blue eyes opened, he felt rooted to the spot with a sudden feeling he had no name for.


It's true kiddo's.

You can not saw off your arm with a plastic protractor. No matter how much you wish you could.

This chapter was brought to you by the songs Plays Pretty For Baby by Saosin & Anthems Of A Seventeen Year-Old Girl by Broken Social Scene. Just cause I really love Saosin and Broken Social Scene. The songs that I listen to while I write usually have nothing to do with the mood or content in most of the chapters. But sometimes they do. -that was random stupid facts you don't care to know right?-

The chapter title seems... odd... But it really makes sense in my mind. Gah! I mean, life really sucks when you're forced to move, but you come to like where you are usually. And when you're seventeen, most things that are new suck... but you end up liking them...? Have I lost anyone? I lost myself.

If you review... It would make my day. Ha ha ha!