A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know. I fucked up with the updating, but I made up for it by making this exxxxtraa long. I reached a brain fart somewhere in there haha, maybe you can guess where, but anyways I sucked at getting this out on time due to it flooding over here but we're all alive and well so don't even think about it. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Warning: ehhh... hmm... nah, I got nothin'.

Chapter 2: I'm useless

Gaara

"Un-fucking-believable. This is even worse than the picture." His voice full of disbelief, Gaara glared around the large campus, taking in the sickeningly, rich atmosphere. He gritted his teeth when random students blatantly stared at him as they passed by. The red-head had only stepped one foot on the campus and he already wanted to rip every single head off that dared to so much as glance in his direction.

Whoever gave Kabuto his license to make sound and viable decisions, was a fucking retard. If this 'solution' didn't work, he was gonna rub his ass in that principal's face forever-!

His trail of thought was abruptly cut off, when he was shoved roughly to the right by a colliding body. Landing hard on the pavement sent a stab of pain right up his back, and made white flash behind his eyeballs. Tasting blood in the back of his mouth from biting his tongue, Gaara roughly spit it out then turned towards the mop of blonde that was currently residing on his chest.

The red-head was right about to use a few choice words for what he thought about being messed with on his first day, when his eyes caught sight of a dark-haired prick smirking with a small group of other stuck-up-looking guys. And it wasn't the 'I just saw something funny' smirk it was the 'Because I did that, I'm gonna look even cooler' smirk. What a jackass.

Looking back down at the blonde headed kid, Gaara awkwardly tapped him on the head; not sure if he was taking the time to compose himself, or if he was getting a little too comfy. Blondie, which Gaara resorted to calling him, shifted a bit to try and stand, but only hissed in pain when he put weight on his wrist.

"Hey, you alright, blond- I mean kid?" Gaara asked with concern, not wanting to be rude but wanting the blonde off of him as soon as possible. The students that had completely ignored him before were now openly gawking at the two of them sprawled on the ground in the middle of the campus sidewalk. Rolling his eyes to the heavens, Gaara gave up on trying to have a normal, incident-free first day.

Blondie sat up a bit more; obviously trying to hide his pain by the way he was holding onto his lip with his teeth. At the sudden movement, Gaara wasn't prepared for the beaming smile Mr. Blondie sent his way. He had to squint his eyes so that he wouldn't go blind.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't even worry about it." Once the smile was gone, Gaara was finally able to get a good look at the kid that had so gracefully sent him to the ground. He was definitely your typical blue-eyed blonde; his naturally tan skin only adding to the affect. His build was smaller than Gaara's, but he was far from a shrimp; the red-head probably only had an inch, at most, on this guy.

"If you say so…. mind getting off of me now?" A blush as red as ketchup covered the blonde's face as he muttered a quiet 'my bad' and removed himself from the red-head's body. Gaara immediately felt a chill that contrasted sharply with the warmth of the others body, but didn't let the discomfort show as he stood along with him. Gaara was quietly dusting himself off when he felt like he was being watched. Inclining his head to this side in question he scanned the crowd and his eyes automatically met dark brooding ones.

Gaara's icy stare met the dark-haired prick's across the sidewalk, and though he didn't know it, there was a slight warning to the dark gaze. Never being known for backing down to anyone, Gaara lifted a light eyebrow mockingly, enjoying the brief flicker of anger that past through his opponent's eye.

Totally caught up in his staring contest, Gaara nearly screamed when a hand was waved in his face.

"Hello! You in there, dude?" Gaara grabbed his hand with more force than necessary and the blonde, who couldn't catch his balance in time, toppled into him again. However, this time Gaara was able to at least remain standing, but without even realizing it, his hand had wandered to the blonde's hip to keep him steady. The glare that had once been a nagging sensation was now a full-blown hole burning in his skull.

The red-head glanced up once and one look confirmed his suspicion. Looking back down at Blondie, he released the captured hand and righted him, ignoring the blush that had once again returned to his cheeks.

"Sorry, I space a lot," he said casually, adjusting his backpack, and picking up his books. The dark-haired guy was still watching them, which only succeeded in annoying the hell out of Gaara as he huffed his breath out causing his long bangs to flutter, "You should be more careful though; I don't think your boyfriend appreciates me saving your ass."

The smile that had once been permanently placed on Blondie's face slipped a bit when he turned sharply to look at said 'boyfriend' across the sidewalk. Taking Naruto's glance as a confirmation, Gaara turned and walked away; re-beginning his long-awaited first day of school, hopefully without more bulldozing morons interrupting it. By the time Blondie looked away from the prick, Gaara was already disappearing among the crowds of students entering the building.

Watching him go, Naruto growled under his breath allowing his cheerful mask to slip. Great, just what he needed, another asshole that had issues with accepting kind gestures, and bright smiles. Not only that, but it was like his cheeks were on the constant setting of beet red. Feeling his cheeks beginning to heat at the memory of the red-head's arms wrapped around him, whether intentional or not. Naruto mentally slapped himself, shaking the strange thoughts from his head.

It's not like he was gay or anything.

Trying his best to ignore the Uchiha that was smirking in his direction, Naruto righted the bag on his shoulder and set off in the same direction as the red-head.

Naruto

Naruto walked into his first period, which was Anatomy and Physiology, feeling pretty much the same way he had when the day started; pissed. Sasuke was acting as if that retarded conversation, as short as it was, that they'd had last night had never happened. The guy was all over the place with everything he did, yet every move he made had a calculated air about it.

Once again, he was asking himself why he cared.

Heading straight for the back of the class, while ignoring the few students openly whispering around him about what happened earlier, Naruto settled himself in for his daily routine; sleep the first ten minutes of class then wake up and take whatever notes are already on the board and ace the test. Leaning back, he folded his arms over his eyes and rested his head against the wall. Silently patting himself on the back for being early for once, Naruto let all the noise drown out into the background.

Approximately five minutes had passed just fine, when the later students finally began filing into the classroom one by one, the next louder than the last. A part of him wondered who exactly was coming in and when, because soon enough he'd have to memorized it, so he knew just how long he could sit in peace before being disrupted.

"Naruto! Wake the hell up!" Yep, definitely Ino. Sluggishly lifting his arm to peer under it, he met blue eyes about two shades lighter than his, glaring between the cracks in his arms. Sighing, Naruto finally sat up all the way, blinking his eyes rapidly to clear the blur.

"I'm up, I'm up. Geez, Ino, maybe I should take you home with me and make you my personal alarm clock." Ino scoffed while turning to slap her books on her desk, still clutching her tiny purse to her shoulder. Turning back to face him, Ino placed her hands on her hips.

"Please! You couldn't afford such a rare quality and I refuse to be hauled around in that junky clunker you call a truck."

"Hey, watch it. That's my baby you're talking about." Naruto said half-kidding, putting his hands up in mock defense. Ino snorted, but dropped her hands from her hips and took her seat delicately. Naruto sighed on the inside; he would never tell them why the other half of him was also serious. Truth was he owned way more than just that truck…

…but he'd never tell them that.

The dark aura settling itself into the seat next to him didn't escape him either, as he avoided all contact with the raven and concentrated all his energy on the clock hanging right above the desk.

Inconspicuously pulling out his notebook three second before the teacher came into the classroom; Naruto went ahead and began writing down all the objectives on the board, so he knew what to study when he got home. That way he could pretend to not pay attention and his grade wouldn't fluctuate any. The silent boy next to him did the same, which struck Naruto as odd. Sasuke wouldn't be called social, but he wasn't exactly what you called 'introverted' either and the fact that he hadn't made one jeer towards the blonde made Naruto more uneasy than relieved.

All through class the Uchiha didn't show any sign of livening up until Ms. Mitarashi, or Anko-sensei depending on whether or not you're Japanese, brought everyone's attention to the front of class. Without his permission, Naruto's heart jumped into his throat. For the second time that day, icy turquoise eyes met shocked blue directly.

Despite the fact that his blood red hair was blocking the full view of his eyes, Naruto could practically feel his icy stare. Expecting him to look away first like Sasuke usually, Naruto continued to openly stare back at him, catching the attention of the students that had been whispering earlier about what happened between them before class. When the whispering started, the red-head snapped his head away and resumed to stare disinterestedly at the opposite wall.

"Hey that new kid's hot!" A pink haired girl sitting next to Ino said, with emerald green eyes that sparked with the challenge. Ino glared at her openly.

"Hands off, Sakura, I spotted him first!" Sakura rolled her eyes and looked pointedly in Sasuke's general direction; Naruto wouldn't know for sure because he was steadfastly avoiding all contact.

"What about Sasuke? I thought you were in love with him?" Ino's cheeks colored slightly, but she swept the comment away as quickly as it had come, shooting back with one of her own.

"You were too, every girl was! And at least I didn't have a crush on Naruto freshman year." It was Sakura's turn to become scarlet as she shot a nervous glance at said blonde then turned to glare at Ino with renewed force. Sensing his cue, because Naruto wouldn't be the ball of sunshine that he was today if he didn't keep his act up, the blonde opened his mouth to put in his two-cents.

"What's wrong with that? I'm way cuter than that guy and Sasuke put together!" Naruto's timing couldn't have been more perfect because, of course, the whole class heard him and burst out laughing; Sasuke being the loudest, which wasn't surprising.

Then again, Naruto was ultra sensitive when it came to anything he did.

The blush that covered his face was also perfectly timed, along with the moment that Sasuke opened his mouth to finally hit him with the insult he'd been waiting for all class period.

"Since when has anyone been interested in airheaded blondes?" He said this to more laughter, effectively embarrassing Naruto in front of the whole class and worse, in front of the new student that Naruto had also avoided looking at since the scene had begun to play out.

"Beside Uzumaki, it wasn't any of them that couldn't keep their eyes off of him." This was said quietly, with the coldest expression Naruto had ever seen on the Uchiha's face. Stunned speechless and without enough time to even think about why the Uchiha was so hostile with that one statement, Naruto left it to Anko-sensei to quiet the class once more.

"As I was saying class, this is Gaara Sabaku, and he will be finishing the year with us. Please make him feel welcomed." The entire class murmured a respectful 'welcome' to which Gaara just nodded and waited for Anko to seat him.

Naruto, who had chosen to sulk instead of pay attention, nearly jumped when the sound of books hitting the surface of the desk next to him registered. Gathering himself, Naruto cast a furtive glance in Gaara's direction and met a cold stare once again. Turning away quickly, Naruto placed his elbow on the desk, blocking his sullen face from view, as he repeated 'he hates me' over and over again in his head.

He didn't know that Gaara's gaze had been aimed over his shoulder, at Sasuke Uchiha who was glaring right back. It was Anko-sensei's voice that finally broke their glaring contest.

"I would now like for all of you to stand up one by one and state your name loud enough for- Gaara was it?-,"she received a silent nod from the redhead before continuing, "to hear, alright? One of our students, Sai, is absent today, so I'm sure you'll have a chance to meet him tomorrow." And exactly as she asked, the students, one by one, stated their names.

Opting to stare out the window instead, Gaara took in the scenery he was sure to see for the rest of his miserable senior year. There was a surprising abundance of trees that were mostly cherry and sakura blossoms. The bright green lawns were groomed to perfection, as were the select few flowers around it. Although Gaara was reluctant to admit it, the place was ten times nicer than his old high school. His father would've loved to have been able to afford sending him here, so it was ironic that in the end, it was force, not money, that was the ticket.

"Sasuke Uchiha." Gaara refused to turn and look at him, already recognizing the cold, detached voice.

"Naruto Uzumaki." The voice next to him said, as he turned to look at the sullen blond. His blue eyes weren't focused on anything particular, but it was obvious he was avoiding all the eyes in the classroom that were surely focused on him.

"Nice to meet you." The words were out of his mouth before he even realized he'd said them and there went his hand, following those same words. Naruto's head snapped up and their eyes met.

"Y-Yeah." He said nervously, feeling three sets of eyes on him; one jealous, one envious, the other enraged. Quickly reaching out to shake his hand, Naruto looked away and sat down just as quickly. Great, another bipolar asshole, he thought as he slumped down in his chair, hoping with everything he had that the floor would open up and swallow him whole. Ino and Sakura were shooting twin glares at him, which he dodged successfully, and Sasuke was being… Sasuke.

"Well then, that's the whole class. Once again, welcome to Bijuu High School." With the introductions finished, Anko went on to teaching the class about the anatomy of the human body and how it related to the common ape and on and on she went until half the class was snoring loudly; well at least Kiba was.

Naruto and Shikamaru went for the more silent approach. However, what kept him from sleeping wasn't Kiba's snores or the occasional glares and stares sent his way, it was the elbow digging into his side repeatedly every two seconds.

"What!" Naruto hissed in a whisper. Sasuke just smirked and did it again.

"Pay attention." Opting to stick his tongue out and completely ignore his suggestion, Naruto pointedly leaned away from him and accidently bumped into the new student, earning him a scowl from Sasuke and now Gaara.

"Eh-heheh, sorry. It was the bastard's fault!" Naruto said quickly, nervously rubbing the back of his head with his right hand and awkwardly pointing at Sasuke with his left. The redhead glanced from Naruto's flushed face to Sasuke's challenging stare and back.

"Don't worry about it." He said slowly tilting his head away from the two, his jaw muscles jumping at the urge to punch the smug Uchiha in the face, but knowing he couldn't mess up this time; it was his last chance. His father had made that painfully clear. On the inside, he apologized though knowing the blonde kid- err, Naruto, couldn't hear it

"See? Now you've gone and caused a scene." Sasuke said with barely held back amusement, closing his notebook and placing his pens into his satchel. If Naruto was smart he would've glanced at the clock and known they only had five second left in class, but of course right as he opened his mouth to retort the bell rang; signaling the end first period and the beginning of second.

Just the thought of the school day not being over, was enough to make the blonde slump back into his desk and not move. That didn't last long, because soon Anko was slapping him on the back of the head for not leaving and being late for second period.

"Anko-sensei, I'm not late-" And the final bell rang. Packing up his stuff as quickly as possible, Naruto bolted, with his bright orange backpack right on his heels.

Gaara

Clocks are still useless, Gaara thought as he vaguely listened to what Shizune, the assistant principal, was yelling about over the phone. Something about toilet paper and the boys' bathroom. Gaara snorted, it was probably some lame attempt at a prank or something. Back at his school, their pranks went way past stuffing toilet rolls down the toilets and flooding the bathrooms. They spray painted graffiti all over the side of school and office buildings, drew sharpie mustaches on all their principals' faces, and were still able to look them in the eye the next day without laughing. Of course those were just the pranks they pulled freshman year, the ones pulled sophomore and junior year were a bit too graphic to be written in a fanfic.

Finally, slamming the phone down and ending whatever yelling contest she was participating in, Shizune plastered a smile on her face and gestured for him to approach the front desk.

"Gaara Sabaku, correct?" She asked sweetly, taking his tilt of the head as a yes, "Alright, did you have any problems with your schedule that we'll need to fix?" Gaara shook his head no and watched her type something into the computer. Seconds later a piece of paper shot out the printer and she snatched it in mid air like some ninja or something.

"Mr. Sabaku, this'll be your final schedule, okay? Just call us during school hours if you still see any problems with it." She handed him the paper, which he took impatiently, eager to get back to his fifth period class before it ended.

It was the only decent class they offered here; study hall and lunch. During study hall you sit around and decide to either study or listen to your iPod the whole class and the teachers could care less. He hadn't gotten around to lunch yet, but before he'd been called to the office to mess with his schedule, he'd been head banging to Linkin Park. Not only did he have nothing to do, but that irritating asshole was also there, along with the blonde that made him feel funny.

In every sense of the word.

Rushing back to the classroom, he sat down for only two minutes, when the bell rang signaling the beginning of lunch.

Here we go, thought Gaara, the epic where-do-I-sit-cause-I'm-new epidemic. Honestly, the red-head could care less. Speaking of seats though, he'd seen a nicely shaded area outside of the cafeteria when he'd last been window gazing, so if no one was occupying the area currently, he was definitely gonna try and snag it.

Once he entered the cafeteria, Gaara whistled lowly at how huge it was. Not only did their cafeteria look like a giant café with couches set up in random areas, but it also had different popular restaurants set up, so a student could get whatever outrageously pointless and expensive meal they wanted; from Italian to Asian foods.

Skimming the large cafeteria that was filling up pretty fast, Gaara spotted two lone vending machines. Shaking off his surprise that the snobbish school even had them, Gaara sped over. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, the red-head was busy debating whether or not he should spend that extra quarter on pretzels, when he was tapped on the shoulder. Glancing back over his shoulder, his eyes met the small figure of a dark haired girl. She was shyly poking her fingers together and staring at her shoes, but when she finally got up enough courage to look at him with her pale eyes, her face became beet red.

"U-Um, d-do you need help deciding?" Gaara narrowed his eyes at her, not in a mean way, but he knew in her own polite terms she was basically telling him to hurry the hell up. Finally forgoing the pretzels and saving his last quarter from the vending machine, Gaara lightly grabbed his bag of sour cream and onion lays chips, and his strawberry kiwi vitamin water.

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks though." He said, nodding down to her politely and moving past her carefully, as if she might break from even the lightest jostle. Gaara was pretty sure her name was Hinata or something.

He was stopped by a couple more girls, in which they just ogled him and compared him to a bunch of male models they worshipped and of course, Sasuke. That was getting really old, real fast. He caught a glimpse of him, once again making blonde's life a living hell, but Gaara gritted his teeth and reminded himself that it wasn't his business and that no, said blonde had not just glanced at him with a hopeful gaze, as if silently asking for some back up, because once again it wasn't his business.

He's just here to finish his final year in high school, then work for the rest of his life to hopefully pay his father back for everything he's wasted by being stupid….and existing.

Finally making it outside, Gaara was relieved to find that no one had claimed his 'shaded paradise'. Examining the tree for a split second, Gaara climbed up onto the sturdiest branch and began munching on his chips, enjoying his first moment of peace out of the whole hectic week. His peace was interrupted by two people bickering, heading his way and growing louder by the second.

He really needed to stop trying to find peace in this place. For a bunch of rich snobs, they kept it a bit too lively. Whatever happened to the typical stereotype of them thinking simple partying was too low of an activity to partake in?

"I can't fucking stand him!" One voice shouted in anger, sounding vaguely familiar to Gaara's ears.

"Oh come on, Naruto, he does this to you every day. Why you think he'll one day stop, bow down, and kiss your feet is something I'll never understand." Ino. He'd recognize that condescending voice anywhere; she vaguely reminded him of his sister, which wasn't a good thing.

"That's not it, Ino." You don't understand was what Naruto wanted to say add, but gave up a long time ago when it came to trying to get Ino to see and feel how he saw and felt.

"Well you do a perfect job in explaining," She only received a sigh, which she ignored and shouted, "Oi! Sakura! Over here!" Gaara watched a pink blob bob into view followed by a spiked ponytail, and a furry hoodie.

"Wow, you actually picked the perfect spot. I didn't know you were capable of such a grueling task, Ino." The smack he earned was audible and echoed off the walls of the campus, plus from the sound of the voice he'd guess the unfortunate guy with the foul mouth was that scruffy guy Kiba; Gaara was good at putting names with faces, even after just seeing them once.

It would definitely come in handy with the job interview he had coming up. He was gonna try and put his cooking skills to work as a chef for a small restaurant he found far enough away from the school, but close enough to where he lived, so he hopefully wouldn't run into anyone he knew.

"Shut up, mutt-face!"

"Hey, who was it that complained a whole class period over having to find a new spot for us? You!" Twins groans of 'here we go, again' came from the spiky ponytail, which Gaara guessed was that really sleepy kid Shikamaru, and Naruto.

"You guys should just get married already, and save us the headaches." Shikamaru mumbled around his sandwich, plucking off the disgusting tomatoes his mom insisted on putting on top of his ham. At the same time he ignored the indignant sputtering coming from Kiba and Ino, but smirked at the outrageous laughter coming from Sakura and Naruto.

"We all know dog-boy's gonna marry his dog! But I'm going after that gorgeous new boy." Kiba pretended to puke directly on her and she sent another slap his way but he dodged it and mocked her by sending a toothy grin in her direction.

"Oh please, I wouldn't be surprised if he was gay, and was madly in love with our sunshine here." He said patting Naruto's head and making two parties blush, though he was only aware of one. Ino and Sakura let out unflattering squawks and settled their glares on Kiba.

"S-Shut up, Kiba! You think every guy that so much as looks at me is gay or madly in love." Naruto scowled and silently cursed Kiba to the depths of hell for even making that comment. Kiba sent his infamous grin at him.

"Well I was right with Sasuke wasn't I? He just can't keep his hands off of you! Today was a perfect example." Naruto practically turned purple the same moment a half-full vitamin water bottle came down on his head, hard enough to knock him on his ass.

Gaara scrambled to right himself on his branch, but ultimately failed and ended up following his vitamin water out of the tree and unfortunately…

…right on top of Naruto.

Ino and Sakura both screamed at the same time, momentarily fearing for their lives if the sky was falling down around them. Shikamaru snapped out his daze enough to get them to calm down, while Kiba fell on his ass cracking up at the scene that unfolded before them.

Naruto was on his back with his arms and legs splayed out across the grass, his hair fanned out above his head creating a halo effect, and his eyes were watering slightly at the impact making once sky blue eyes become oceans in a second.

Gaara heard more than felt his forehead meet the ground in 'the thud heard around the world'. Taking a moment to quell his short-lived dizziness, Gaara finally opened his eyes and almost wanted to cry. Here he was again, in some sort of body lock with the same blonde he'd been narrowly avoiding the whole day, but thanks to his second of butterfingers, he'd landed himself once again and literally, right on top of him.

The eyes that stared up at him were different from how they were earlier that day. The blue sparkled but held a hint of exhaustion, sadness, and most of all loneliness. Naruto stared at him in contemplation, as if judging his next moves carefully, just to see how the red head would react.

Finally the blonde just grinned up at him, which in his eyes was supposed to quell the awkwardness, but Gaara only felt how forced it was and how fake it looked plastered on the blonde's face. He was obviously uncomfortable, but wasn't willing to put it into words, which made Gaara feel that funny feeling again in his gut; the urge to hold him quickly being kicked out to make way for 'I need to get the hell off of him'.

Shaking his head, Gaara gently picked himself up off the blonde, apologizing the whole way, refusing to watch the grin slowly slip off his face.

"I guess this time it's my bad." He said picking up his vitamin water and tossing it in his backpack that had also fallen out of the tree with him.

"What can you say, it was an accident." Naruto said a little sadly, sitting up on his own. Instead of trying to salvage his lunch, Naruto picked it up and threw it into a nearby garage bin. Gaara inwardly winced at the wasted food, but had to accept the fact that people weren't as money conscious, or in other words cheap, as him.

"Yeah, an accident." Gaara said feeling as if that reasoning suddenly sounded inadequate.

"Well I'd say it was fate, but who the hell listens to me nowadays!" Kiba said loudly breaking the tense atmosphere with his ridiculousness. Ino spared a half-hearted laugh, but her eyes were glued on Naruto as were Sakura's, which made the blonde shift nervously from foot to foot.

"What were you doing up in a tree anyway?" Came Shikamaru's lazy inquiry that no one bothered to even question. Gaara eyebrows cocked for a second as he silently pondered the question as if asking himself the same thing.

"Hell, I couldn't tell ya. Just tryna eat my lunch." And just like that Kiba was laughing again and Ino and Sakura had stopped staring down Naruto's flushed face long enough to entertain the new boy.

Huffing under his breath, Naruto feigned not being hungry when asked why he threw his lunch away, and deciding to look off in whatever direction the redhead wasn't. He'd seen that look too many times, the one that held pity, but no action; apology, but resigned concern. He'd just be another one of his 'friends' that sat and watched. He'd totally lost his appetite.

The looking off in another direction was a bad idea, because the moment he caught Sasuke's eyes through the cafeteria doors, he'd signed his "going to have a bad day" certificate. Immediately, the Uchiha and his gang that consisted of Suigetsu, Juugo, Karin, and Neji who held a more passive stance when it came to Sasuke's antics, ditched their table and lackeys in favor of terrorizing one person.

"Looks like you can't keep your eyes off of anyone today, dobe." The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, as Naruto let it be known how much he hated that nickname.

"If it bothers you so much, teme, why bother to entertain me?" The curve of Sasuke's lips only infuriated the blonde more, as he felt more than saw his friends completely withdraw from him, only Gaara still stood outright in front of the Uchiha, his muscles popping in his jaw again.

"Because I know from experience that everything with you is manual." The double meaning was thrown in there on purpose, Naruto thought, trying his best not to physically flush. From the corner of his eyes he saw, Gaara's hands clench into fists, but he knew better than to get hopeful. There was never any rescue for him, and there wasn't going to be any now.

Sasuke stood indifferently, with an amused smirk on his face, proud of himself for some sick reason. Naruto opted to just roll his eyes, sneer, and look way. All three didn't bode well with Mr. Uchiha.

He didn't see it coming until the hand was a centimeter from his face, but in another second it was being smacked away by a hand that was too pale to belong to him.

"Don't touch him." A voice said really close to his ear, loud enough for even the once smug raven to hear, as he regarded the rejected hand like it was a foreign part of his body. Looking away from it, Sasuke sent Gaara the coldest glare to ever grace the Uchiha's features, but Gaara stood his ground and sent a glare of equal frostiness right back.

"And who's gonna make sure I don't?" Sasuke said challengingly, stepping closer as a threat. Finally Neji spoke up from the back.

"Sasuke, class is about to start; just forget about it." Sasuke surprisingly backed down after a second or two, but not in every sense of the word. Smirking in Gaara's face, Sasuke turned on his heel and spat on the grass close to Gaara's feet. Making it crystal clear that their little battle was far from over, the Uchiha 'gang' dispersed to go to their individual classes.

Naruto was staring at Gaara's back in amazement. No way, he thought as it finally registered in his brain what had happened. The first emotion that set in was relief, and the next was panic.

"You didn't have to do that," He said quickly and harshly in his attempt to gain Gaara's full attention to continue, "I could handle it on my own." Gaara's first look was confusion then it turned cold.

"I don't care. It's about time that smug asshole is taken down a couple notches." The girls weren't sure whether to find Gaara even sexier for contributing to their 'bad boy fantasy, or defend Sasuke in the name of their long term crush. Kiba chuckled nervously, and Shikamaru remained painfully silent. Naruto only shook his head; Gaara didn't understand what he was getting at.

"No, I mean they won't leave you alone now. You're on his target list." Naruto said seriously, relieved when Gaara's expression turned thoughtful, and truly dumbfounded when it then turned into a sheepish grin; the first open expression he'd seen on the redhead since he'd first met him.

"I guess old habits die hard." And Naruto, for the life of him, couldn't figure out what he meant.

"Well, looks like lunch is officially over." Kiba howled, breaking another moment that would have to be explored further by them later. Later that day, the bell finally rang signaling the end of the last period. The school day had moved entirely too slow in Naruto's opinion.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he made out of the campus doors with no further encounter with Sasuke or Gaara; Naruto silently patted himself on the back for the former. Making his way out to his precious orange baby, and noting the fact that it had rained sometime after lunch and there were huge puddles of water everywhere. Naruto planned ahead to avoid every single one; his truck didn't drive like new, and adding water damage on top of old age wasn't recommended.

Before he could even make it to his truck, however, a car passing by managed to nick a puddle right in front of the blonde at exactly the right angle, making the water come at him like piranha after bloodied meat.

Now soaking wet, Naruto didn't even bother to scream already knowing how cold he was going to be once the air hit him, nor did he squirm uncomfortably as he felt the water seep into his boxers. The blonde simply closed his eyes and breathed deeply, because he knew if he reacted right then and there, he would've been snapping necks. As soon as he opened his eyes, the air finally hit and his teeth began to chatter.

The feel of someone's bigger and bulkier jacket sliding over his lithe shoulders immediately calmed his shivers, and as he turned back to thank whoever it was. The "thanks" stopped in his throat when the only thing that greeted him was a retreating back as it got into its black BMW and sped off campus. And it was who's back that held Naruto's tongue.

He now clung to Sasuke's jacket with a mix of confusion, surprise, and some funny feeling he couldn't describe, but felt the makings of a first true smile in months, crack his face in half.

A/N: I think I deserve kudos for what I was able to scrap together haha I'm kidding, but don't be afraid to tell me what you think (no flames). Review!