Previously:
I noticed that it was unusually quiet in the classroom and everyone seemed to be working away on something, but when I looked at the people at my table, they weren't doing a damn thing. Ponytail girl was tapping away on her phone, her nails clicking loud against the screen as she sent rapid-fire texts. Tsubaki - no wait, what was her name again? Sa... Sa... Sakshi? Whatever, pinky was playing with the ends of her hair. And Naruto... had his arms crossed and this peeved look on his face as he looked up at me.
What the heck?
"What are you, some kind of gangster, Uzumaki?" I questioned.
"Teme, where the hell have you been for the past 20 minutes? I even went looking for you," he said, ignoring my question.
I wasn't sure how to respond the that. I wasn't about to tell him that I had been hiding out in the bathroom all that time, trying to avoid getting caught by the blond in the process.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter," Naruto sighed, rubbing his face. "But if we fail this, it's all your fault." Wait, fail? Fail what? I don't fail anything ever!
"What are you talking about?" I inquired, trying to hide the panic I felt rising in my chest. But Naruto didn't seem to feel like answering my question and simply let out another tired sigh.
"Someone else explain it," the boy muttered, barely audible.
"Oh, I will!" ponytail girl yelled excitedly, her head immediately whipping up from her phone screen.
"C'mon Ino, you weren't even listening when Sensei was telling us about the project. You don't even know what it's about!" Pinky said, rolling her eyes. "I'll explain it instead," she said smugly. Ponytail girl's name is Ino, huh? Looks like I've learned yet another useless name.
"Oh please, Sakura," right, Pinky's name was Sakura, "You were on your phone too," Ponytail gi—I mean Ino returned. Well, with that being said, It'd be best to convince Naruto tell me about this project since both these girls seem as lost as I am.
"Naruto?" I said. No response. Did he not hear me?
"Naruto?" I said a little louder. No way. Was he giving me the silent treatment? We're twelve, not five.
"Dobe," I tried instead. His eye twitched a bit at that one, but he still didn't answer me.
"Naruto," I started, "If you don't tell me what the heck so is going on, then you're just as culpable as I am for our potential bad grade." I have my fingers crossed that he'll cave in and respond to this.
"Fine, but you have to make it up for me for making us wait for you," he said.
"Oka-wait what?" I asked.
"We were assigned a group project to do together. The four of us. But we couldn't start it since you weren't here and now we're behind the other groups. i think I deserve compensation for that," he replied.
A group project already? I only just learned these people's names. Damn, I seriously hate group projects. Getting quality work from other classmates is like pulling teeth and I always end up doing all the work myself while everyone else just sits around. I mean, I never minded much when I ended up doing all the work for group projects with my friends because I can actually benefit from that; but doing all the work for people I don't even associate is just a pain that's not worth my time or effort.
"I have nothing to make up for. You should've just started it without me then," I retorted.
"Trust me, I wanted to, but the girls insisted that we wait until you returned. They got all 'It's two against one. Majority rules.' and I got stuck having to wait for you," he complained.
"Well I'm here now, so what are you waiting for?" I asked. "Or was that all just an excuse to not have to do any work?"
"Excuse me?!" Naruto bellowed. "I would've loved to start this damned thing without you. Believe it."
"Then let's commence. You can start by explaining the project to me, unless you wanted to do this entire thing yourself. It doesn't look like Ino or Sakura will be detaching themselves from their phones anytime soon and I'm pretty useless if I don't even know what's going on," I reasoned.
"I could perfectly well do it myself," he started. "But there's no point in having a perfectly functional, though irritating brain like your own go to waste, now is there?" he said bitterly.
I see what he did there. He didn't want to downplay his own capabilities, but he most certainly doesn't want to have to do all the work for this project on his own. Well, I still get what I wanted anyway, he has to explain the project to me now.
"I suppose not," I smirked.
For the rest of the period, Naruto proceeded to explain the project to me and we brainstormed how we should design and present our ideas. However, our late start left us at a disadvantage, as that's all of the work we were able to complete during the class time we were given. To be honest, I was rather surprised. I expected him to back off once he finished rehashing what Sensei had said while I was gone, but it seemed like he was actually going to work together with me on this thing.
"Well at least we know what we want to do. We've just gotta do it all now." Naruto said.
"Do we get more time to work on this again?" I questioned.
"Not in class," Naruto answered sadly. "I guess we'll just split up the work, do it individually on the weekend, and then put it all together early in the morning on Monday." Ah, gross. Mondays already suck, I don't want to have to prolong my suffering my coming to school even earlier than I already do.
"Sasuke?"
"Uhh, sorry what?" I responded. I mentally facepalmed, well that was undignified.
He made a face, "I asked if coming to school an hour earlier seemed like enough time." Why, why, why, why, whyyy? That's cutting into precious sleeping time. Every extra hour I have to spend at school is an hour I could be sleeping, training, or even reading for god's sake. There's only one alternative I can think of for saving that precious hour on Monday.
"How about if we just get together on the weekend to work on this?" I supplied. "We can do it at my house."
Naruto stared at me with his eyebrows raised and eyes wide.
"What?" I scoffed.
"Uh, uhm."
"If you don't want to, just say so," I said irritably. It drives me nuts when people can't just say what they think. It's just inefficient and wastes my time.
"No, it's not that," he blurted. "I was just surprised."
"Hn." Surprised over what? I asked because it's a group project. It's not like I had much of a choice.
"So where's your house? We should continue working on it after school today so we have the weekend to work on to as well. Who knows how long this is actually going to take us."
"Uchiha district," I answered.
Naruto put his hand on his chin and looked pensive for a moment, "Wait, isn't that outside of the city?" he asked.
"Yeah, but it's only 45 minutes or so by car. It's not really that far."
"A-Actually, how about if we work on it at my house instead? I live within walking distance from the school."
What the heck? I have no problem with it either way, but usually people are dying to see the Uchiha mansion. This guy just gets weirder and weirder. I mean, it's annoying when people get all excited by the fact that my family has money and it really irks me, but I at least know how to handle that. It happens all the time. Now as refreshing as this all is, how the heck am I suppose to handle this guy? This kind of situation has never happened to me before. Typically, people get all house-conscious and don't want me over to their place unless they have a mansion as well. Maybe this guy's secretly loaded then...
I couldn't have been more wrong, I thought, as we approached a dilapidated apartment at the back of a building in the sketchiest part of town I've -thankfully- never seen. This is the complete opposite of loaded. This entire complex isn't even worth as much as my cottage, let along my house. Surely Naruto's playing a joke on me right now.
Naruto dissociated that theory the second he pulled out a set of keys and unlocked what seemed to be the front door.
"It's not much, but make yourself at home," Naruto said, stepping inside the apartment. I was hesitant for a second, but followed in after him, the floorboards creaking loudly every time I moved.
The lighting inside the apartment was rather bad, it was like entering an old closet. The light bulbs seemed to be hardly holding on to their last watts.
As soon as I walked in, there was a chesterfield(1) against the far wall, I supposed that meant that this was the living room. On the opposite wall, there was a "white" fridge that was yellowing with age, a sink, a stove, and some cupboards. I guess that served as the kitchen. There was a small battered looking wooden table with a few chairs - the dining area I guess.
From where I stood I could see two doors. I'm guessing that was the bedroom and the bathroom.
i don't really know what to say about all this. Thankfully, Naruto started talking anyway.
"I'd give you a tour, but it's pretty obvious where everything is. The door to the left is the bathroom, the one to the right is my room," Naruto smiled, "It's not much, but I'm only one person and I find it pretty cozy."
Again, I'm not really sure what to say to that, so I decided to change the subject, "So where do your parents sleep then?"
Silence.
"Well, uh..." Naruto said rubbing the back of his neck.
"Up there I assume," he said pointing upwards. "They died shortly after I was born."
"Shit, I'm really sorry I-" I blurted out.
"It's okay," he interrupted. "It was a long time ago. It's not like you could've known anyway," he said with a smile - a genuine smile.
How can he even smile while talking about something like this? Sure, I wasn't that close with any of my family, but I don't think I could ever talk about deaths like that so lightly.
It all seemed a little odd. It made me wonder how the heck both parents could die shortly after having a son. I mean, it's an unusual situation. It's one thing for his mom to die giving birth or something, but how would they both die just after he was born? I wanted to ask how they had died, but it's really not any of my business. Also, I may not have the best social skills, but I'm pretty sure that's not something you can just ask about like that.
Shit, I know I said I wasn't going to ask, but I'm so goddamn curious now. I need to find a way to distract myself from thinking about this.
"So should we start working on the project?"
"Yeah, sounds good," I answered a little too quickly. I just really needed something to help stop me from asking about his parents. I'm sure he's thought about them enough to last a lifetime, living alone and all. I know I would've ruminated on the topic for countless hours if I were in his place and I can't imagine how crappy that would feel.
We worked on the project for the rest of the evening and it wasn't until 7pm that the thought of leaving crossed my mind.
We got a lot of work done today and the project was nearly finished. But at the same time, I had a lot of fun working together with Naruto on this. I didn't even notice how much time had gone by.
Despite it's appearance, Naruto's house had a much better atmosphere than mine ever had.
Everyone in my family was obsessed with the business and invested so much time into it that it had seeped into all of our personal lives. Even at home, everyone behaved professionally, as if they had never left the Uchiha Corp building.
My mother was always wearing her fancy dresses and heels with her hair done up in intricate designs.
My father was always wearing his expensive suits and expense watches, with my older brother right behind him.
None of them ever had the time or apparel to play with me.
Naturally, I had strictly been taught that it would not be tolerated in any way, shape, or form if I left a single pea on my plate at dinner, if I ate sweets, if I went to bed late, didn't get perfect grades, or wanted to play outside in the rain or park like other kids.
It was unrefined and simply unacceptable by their standards. But just how much refinement does a child residing at home need? I'll never understand it and I'll never want anything to do with Uchiha Corp because of it.
But Naruto had no association with a multi-million dollar company and he didn't care about any of that. He was different. He wasn't concerned with how his mannerisms appeared to others. He wasn't trying to impress anyone. He just liked to have fun. He made corny jokes and snorted when he laughed without any restraint. For some reason, this all just gave me that warm, fulfilled feeling again. I don't know why I feel this way or what it's supposed to mean, but it was a nice feeling nonetheless, and I wasn't complaining.
Maybe if I didn't bring up how late it was, I could stay a bit longer...
"Whoa, look how dark it's gotten!" Naruto exclaimed, looking out the window. No such luck. I blame the sun, or lack thereof, for ruining my happiness and giving away the time.
I expected Naruto to try to kick me out, but instead, he surprised me by asking if I wanted anything to eat.
"What?" He asked. "It's late and we haven't eaten anything since lunch. Surely you're hungry by now."
He continued talking to himself as I tried to gather my thoughts. "Well, even if you're not hungry, I'm most definitely hungry. Starved actually. You need to eat something even if you don't feel like it. We're growing boys, yanno?"
That last comment made me chuckle a bit to myself. He sounded motherly.
He may be the same age as me, but at times, he said things a parent would say. I guess it makes sense though, since he's had to be his own parents all this time.
Naruto turned around when he heard me laugh, "You especially need to do some growing," he said. "You already have the face of girl, so if you're going to keep that long hair, you need to get taller so that people can tell you're not a chick. Maybe even grow a beard or something," Naruto laughed
Oh that is not cool.
If anyone but Naruto said that to me... Well, you don't even want to know what would happen.
"If anything you're the girl here, Uzumaki. I may not be a giant, but I'm still taller than you," I teased. "And just who's making who food right now."
Naruto looked shocked, but recovered quickly, "Alright, alright," he conceded. "But I could still take you on any day," he said with a mischievous look in his eyes.
"That a challenge? i asked stepping in the kitchen.
"It could be, but that all depends on just how good you really are," he remarked, turning his attention back to the food on the stove top. Big mistake, Blondie, I thought to myself.
I wrapped my arm around his head while he was turned around and started grinding my fist into his scalp.
"Ah!" he yelled out in surprise. He began trying to squirm out of my grip. To no avail, of course.
"How good i really am, huh?" I echoed.
What happened next really shocked me. Naruto hooked one of his legs behind one of mine, causing me to lose my balance and fall backwards. But since I was holding onto to him still, he fell down with me. What an idiot.
Thankfully, only his head had landed on me after he fell. The rest of him was laying on the ground beside me, still squirming. But landing flat on my back had me slightly winded and my grip had loosened, so this time he was able to slip out from under my arm.
Before I even realized what was happening, he had swung his leg over my waist and plopped himself down on me rather ungracefully.
I felt the wind leave me yet again.
He grabbed my wrists so that i couldn't push him off of me.
"If i end up burning the ramen because of you, I'm giving you all the burnt stuff,"he grinned.
"Do you smell that? I think it's burning already."
"WHAT!?" he exclaimed. When he briefly looked away to see if there was any smoke coming out of the pot, i took this as an opportunity to roll him off of me and reverse our positions.
"You're so gullible," I smirked.
"That's foul play! Don't use my precious ramen against me like that, it's a gift from the gods!" He sounded so serious when he said this, i couldn't help but laugh.
But once I started laughing, I found myself unable to stop again. It seems as though I've been finding the oddest things funny lately.
Naruto must've found my reaction funny because he started laughing as well.
Then his laughing at my laughing started to seem funny and we both couldn't stop laughing.
When I had finally stopped laughing. Naruto started snort-laughing and I couldn't help myself from laughing again.
Sometimes he would stop laughing as well, only to resume doing it again.
We both probably spent a good 5 minutes hunched over and rolling on the floor laughing.
Eventually, we found ourselves slowing down to a stop and then we were both left smiling on the floor, trying to catch our breaths.
"That was so retarded," I huffed.
He slapped me lightly in the shoulder, "Didn't think you had it in you to do something so retarded, Mr. Perfect."
I slapped him back, "You shouldn't use that word," I said. "It doesn't suit your golden personality."
"What? You can use it and I can't? What kind of logic is that?" he joked.
"Yeah, 'cuz I'm Mr. Perfect - I can't mess up no matter what I say. You're just Naruto," I said, referring to his previously made comment.
He said nothing at this. He just rolled his eyes and grinned at me. I felt myself grinning back.
"So, about the ramen..." I trailed off.
"Oh shit! i forgot about that!" He jumped up and ran back to the stove.
"Yo it's swollen as fuck, but it's still good!" He yelled. "Get your ass in here, Uchiha!"
This time it was my turn to roll my eyes as I walked back towards the stove. I'm surprised at how much distance we actually made while we were wrestling.
"What kind of a dinner is ramen anyway?" I asked.
Naruto stopped what he was doing when I said that - chopsticks poised in the air from when he was dividing the contents of the pot into two bowls for the two of us. He looked up at me very seriously and said, "Your last dinner if you keep disgracing my ramen."
I shifted. I wasn't expecting him to say that. The guy sure was serous about his ramen. I'd be lying if I said that it didn't make me just a little bit uncomfortable.
Naruto must've noticed, because he started chuckling to himself.
"I know it's not the most nutritious thing you could possibly eat, but trust me, when you try my ramen, you'll be begging me for more," he said, continuing to distribute the ramen into bowls.
Just how good can noodles possibly be? I asked myself, not daring to say it out-loud so Naruto could hear. Who knows how he would react to that. He was seriously starting to freak me out a bit with his little obsession.
I grabbed the package Naruto had left off to the side on the counter and began reading the nutrition label for the "gift from the gods."
"Jesus Christ, Naruto. Look at how much sodium and fat is in this stuff! You actually eat this?" I said in surprise. "You could salt your driveway in the winter with this." Okay that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it really did have a lot of salt. It was nearly half the amount you required daily - forty percent - all in just one measly bowl. No wonder Naruto was such a strange guy. His blood pressure must be through the roof.
"Well you know how it is. Sacrifices must be made for the common good," he said, matter-of-factly.
"And just what kind of good does this heart attack accomplish?" I asked, interested in hearing his answer.
At this, Naruto looked directly into my eyes and said, "It's good for your soul, Sasuke.
Nope. Fucking nope. Not this again. God, it's like he becomes possessed when ever we talk about this salty, oriental concoction.
"What soul?" I muttered to myself.
"Alright, let's eat!" He yelled, carrying the bowls to his battered table.
He quickly slapped down a pair of chopsticks in front of me and began devouring his own bowl of noodles.
I felt a little bit hesitant about eating it. I like my food plain and I don't normally add salt to anything; however, this single bowl had more salt in it than I've probably consumed all week. I had an irrational fear that it would shock my body to have a bunch of salt enter my system all of a sudden. Naruto spontaneously began laughing, "Oh my God, Sasuke. You're acting like you've never had ramen before."
...
"Well actually..." i started. I really haven't, but I'm not sure if i should tell a ramen addict like himself that. Just as i was about to decide not to tell him, he interrupted my thoughts.
"No way," he breathed, a bewildered look in his eyes. Uh oh, I don't like that look at all.
Before I knew it, he had jumped out of his chair and was standing in front of me. Just what the heck is this ramen-possessed dork planning on doing this time?
(1) A chesterfield is the Newfy way of saying 'sofa' or 'couch' in Canada. I don't normally use this word when I'm talking to people, but I thought it'd be fun to add some canadianisms to the story. Also, a "newfy" is slang for a Newfoundlander, which is someone who resides in Newfoundland, Canada.
Gosh, it took me like a week to finish this with school and all, but here's chapter two finally!
If you find any typos, please leave me a comment and I'll fix it.
Suggestions are welcomed too!
We can even talk about the weather if you like XD
I'll start, it's hella hot in Southern Ontario right now, so I've been stuck taking the bus instead of walking home. I miss my walks :(
