Author's Notes:

Hello, everyone, this is chapter two :D! Please, enjoy yourselves~ Thanks so much for the beta who'd done this for me!

A loud thrashing sound jolted Naruto out of his sweet, melodic dreams, which consisted of everyone wearing orange and eating ramen. His dreams were shattered by it, causing his face to transform into the picture of grumpiness. He was so furious with that damn sound that he hit his legs on the bedside nearby, and shouted crankily.

"What the hell is going on here?" Naruto looked at his watch. The numbers, 5:07, glared at his sleep-dazed mind. He gritted his teeth.

He was officially pissed; it was known to mankind that when Naruto gets mad, you wouldn't want to be the reason for his anger. He got out of his bed and followed his ear to locate the source of the sound. Opening the window, his heart fell at the source of the horrible noise.

Outside, the sky poured with heavy, noisy rain. Not to mention that lightning struck every two seconds, and the thunder, as if not wanting to be forgotten, made its existence clear. Naruto jumped upon hearing it.

Sighing at Mother's Nature evil game, he slammed the door to his room shut and went downstairs, finding his father making breakfast with a smile on his face. Naruto greeted him with a frown and headed to the bathroom to make the usual morning rituals. About thirty minutes later – twenty in the shower and ten more to make his appearance acceptable –, he walked out to the kitchen to find his father setting up the final touches on breakfast.

"Good morning, Dad, how did you sleep?"

Minato eyed his son as if he had grown a second head or something. "Naruto? Up this hour? And asking me how I slept? Who are you and what have you done with my son?"

The teen rolled his eyes and walked closer to the dining table. "Ha, ha, ha," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Very funny, Dad. When did you turn into such a comedian?"

Minato just shrugged, sitting up on the table with a smile on his face. "Come on, you yourself must admit that this isn't exactly the time you usually wake up at, nor the mood you wake up in."

"I wouldn't be up, but this damn rain wouldn't let me have another minute of sleep!"

"Good to know there is one thing in this entire world that makes you leave your bed early." The young professor smiled.

Naruto puffed his cheeks at this and changed the topic. "So Dad, where's Sasuke?"

"Sasuke? You're on first name basis now?"

Smiling sheepishly at his father, Naruto answered. "Yep, last night we kinda talked and he said that since he was only four years older, I should just call him 'Sasuke', since 'uncle' made him feel old."

A happy smile painted on Minato's face and he nodded. "I'm glad to see you getting along well with him."

"Yeah, me too. So, where is he? Don't tell me he's still asleep?"

"Yes. Even as a kid, Sasuke was never a morning person."

"I understand that, but how the heck could anyone sleep with this storm outside?" To get his point across, Naruto walked towards the window beside them and shoved it open. Almost immediately, there was a flash of lightning, making him jump.

"I don't know, and close that window before the rain gets inside!" Minato said quickly, irritated at the idea of the carpet being ruined and the heavy work that cleaning it would initiate.

Slumping on his back, the teen did as he was told. "Alright."

He sat admiring the simple dining table and the dishes that made up his breakfast. It consisted of pancakes, fried eggs, bacon, and freshly made pineapple juice. Naruto's mouth watered at the dishes and saying quick grace, he started devouring the food.

"Naruto, the food isn't going to run away from you," Minato chided. "Eat slowly."

Swallowing, the teen obliged. "Sorry Dad, but I'm just too hungry. The spaghetti last night didn't really do much."

"I know that, but you'll only get a stomachache stuffing them all inside like that."

"I won't."

They continued the rest of their breakfast in silence, aside from the rain marking the background. Naruto finished his meal, grabbed his school bag from his room, and then walked towards the front door.

"Okay, Dad, I'll be going now."

"Wait, Naruto," Minato protested. "Let me drive you to school. It'd be bad if you were to walk in this weather."

"Nah, Gaara must be already waiting for me and since I woke up early for a change, I'd like to surprise him." Naruto waved away his words, before he grinned. "Besides, it'd take around half an hour for you to get ready; I won't wait that long. So, see ya!"

Before Minato could object, his son waved him goodbye – after grabbing an umbrella to shelter him from the storm outside – and out he went, leaving his father with a dissatisfied look on his face and a messed up dining table that he needed to clean. Shaking his head, Minato sighed and began the morning chores.

Naruto made his way to the school. He really disliked the rain. Firstly, it made the simple task of walking very hard and annoying. Secondly, it caused his lovely sneakers to get muddied with mud. And lastly, those thunder resonances were truly starting to get on his nerves, not to mention the complete absence of the sun. It was out-clouded by the damned rain, no rays, and no heat. Nothing to indicate the sky was feeling happy. Naruto leaped away from a small pond that was forming and onto the parallel pavement as he made a turn to the right. He almost tripped, barely managing to catch himself before falling.

He cursed. "Stupid rain!"

Naruto's face broke into a big, silly grin. A boy about five to seven inches taller than him with flaming red hair could be seen standing silently beside the night pole, whilst his jade eyes observed the rain keenly. The white skin that he wore made him appear almost hazy amongst the raindrops, and the blond didn't like how his friend seemed like he was about to disappear into them. Naruto shook his head at the odd thought and ran to the redhead's side to give him a small pat on the shoulder, catching his attention.

"Hi Gaara!" He grinned. "How was your weekend? Did anything fun happen?"

"Hn."

Naruto rolled his eyes at his statue of a friend and gave another smack on the back to get more words out of him. "I know you can say more than a lame, 'hn', Gaara."

"Hn." The red haired fell into pace with Naruto. "Just because I can doesn't mean I will."

"You're such a dick! One would've thought you'd have changed after being around me for all these years."

"Being around a fungus doesn't necessarily mean I should catch the infection," Gaara replied, amusement heavy in his voice.

Naruto scowled. "Oh, shut it, smartass!"

After that, the two teens made their way to their honorable school. Small chitchats were made here and there but the most exciting event was when Naruto had startled to seriously curse at the rain – due to him tripping and falling on a small water pond – and then they remained quiet until their school gates were visible.

As they neared, Naruto's brain caught on to something, and as stupid as it was, it held a specific meaning.

Gaara was wearing black.

To a normal person who didn't know Gaara, that little fact wouldn't mean anything. However to Naruto, his best friend, it was a blaring red alert. In reality, Gaara looked as sexy as fuck when he wore black, since – according to Sakura – it brought out his eyes and made his skin glow. Yet, the problem was that Gaara despised the color, which he refused to explain; but he hated it. So, why was the guy wearing the color – considering he'd have chosen death if given the choice on whether to die or wear it – willingly?

The little mouse inside of Naruto's head had to run on the wheel a little faster than usual to catch up with the answer; and when it did, his face broke into a huge grin. It was simply because there must have been a person in which Gaara wanted to impress. Naruto swiftly calculated the cons and pros for his upcoming teasing. He could get information, but he might also end up with a black eye, and he really didn't want to go home aching. Besides, what would his bastard uncle think of him if he saw him with one eye missing?

Hitting his head at thinking of something as silly as Sasuke's opinion, he went with the black eye.

"Gaara," Naruto started, giving Gaara an alarmingly innocent look. "Why are you wearing black?"

Gaara answered nonchalantly, shoulders tightening. "No reason."

The blond could feel the tenseness that radiated from his friend, and it only proved into ignite his teasing further. "Yeah right, you hate the color! Remember the last time when I forced you to wear it, that day last Christmas? You refused to talk to me for two weeks! Two whole weeks, Gaara!"

"Your point?"

Naruto grinned. "My point is that 'lil Gaara-kun is finally in love! Who is she? Tell me!"

This time Gaara's whole face flamed like coal on fire.

"Oh My God, Gaara!" Naruto gasped. "Never thought I'd live to see the day when you fucking blush! Now I really need to know her!"

The handsome redhead frowned at his friend's reaction and told Naruto to shut up, threatening him with soon death if he didn't comply.

"Gaara, you should really try that threat again when your face doesn't have the ability to compete with a full grown tomato."

The blond had to leap away from the punch that was suddenly thrown at his face. Luckily he found his footing before his feet connected with shaky grounds. Sweat-dropping, he remembered the dreadful weather they were currently in. It provided Gaara with the perfect crime scene. That's why, when he punches him to death and decides to bury the body in a ditch somewhere, the rain would wash away all traces, and only God will know when his body will be found.

Feeling like his teasing would now cause his death; Naruto retreated with a sheepish, begging smile. "Oh, Gaara, you won't kill your favorite, charming, lovely, best friend who got you on track team when you were disqualified because the upperclassmen thought you were scary, now, would you?"

Looking at the helpless, crocodile-tears filled blue eyes, caused the redhead to roll his own and relax his hand back into place. "The only reason why I'm sparing your ass is that killing you, dumping the body and hiding all traces is such a pain in the ass."

Happily, the blond hopped beside his friend again. "Aw, I knew you couldn't live without me. So, tell me, who is the fancy damsel who stole you from me?"

It happened in mere seconds, his human eyes couldn't even see the hand move, until his cheek puzzled indicating he'd just been punched. Gasping with surprise, the blond bared his fangs.

"What the hell was that for!?"

Gaara shrugged, picking up his initial path. "You were asking for it."

"That's so not fair!" Naruto whined. "I wasn't even ready for it!"

"You weren't supposed to be, baka," Gaara said, rolling his eyes.

Naruto glared at the walking Gaara with all his heart. Gritting his teeth, he made a wild dash to deliver a punch that would restore his pride that was just stolen by the redhead. Yet, just before his hand could collide or Gaara could dodge, a lovely, clam tone woke them both up from their little quarrel.

"Naruto-kun, Gaara-kun, good morning."

Naruto turned to the source of the voice and found a proud looking Hyuuga Neji, Gaara's homeroom teacher, standing in front of them. Everything about his countenance was exact and refined, from his suit to his sleek dark hair. Honestly, Naruto had always thought that Hyuuga Neji was on a whole new level from other ordinary men. He was strict and cared about tradition and culture, yet he also was one who appreciated his students and did everything in his power to insure that they were having the educational and fun high school life they deserved.

The blond rolled his eyes at the katana in Neji-sensei's right hand and he couldn't stop the snort that escaped his mouth. Sure, his teacher was responsible for the Aikido club and was all about swords-play, honor and whatever, but in such a weather, the perfect place for his katana was home. There was no need bringing the sword to school and risking making it rust out. But then again, Neji and his sword were like twin brothers, it was known all around school that wherever Neji went, his sword followed, just like Mary and her Little Lamb. Naruto couldn't stop the chuckle at his own metaphor.

As he questioned what the two males were up to, Neji tilted his head making his long black hair sway with his motion. Naruto shook his head in a 'nothing' way, and hoped the never prying raven continues in the same manner. The umbrella Neji was holding with his delicate, strong fingers was white and old fashioned, and the smile on his face when Naruto answered him made him look almost angelic.

"Good morning, Sensei, how was your weekend?"

"It was quite nice. Thank you for asking, how about yours, boys?"

"So short it killed me! Anyways," Naruto pointed to Gaara, then to Neji, "Gaara, really, you should learn something from Neji-sensei here, the guy is nice, polite and knows how to answer. If you could only be more like him, we won't have to fight as much!"

Both Neji and Gaara looked at him in a startled manner, then Gaara's face turned bored whilst Neji tried to explain something to the blond.

"Well, Naruto-kun, everyone has their own personalities you know, you can't just change that or ask them to copycat another's."

"But I mean the world would be so much more fun, better, have fewer wars, not to mention punches thrown at you in the early freaking morning!" He glared at his best friend who hmphed and ignored his remark, "if everyone become, well, identical to you."

"Thank you for that Naruto-kun, but I assure you that the world needs different kinds of personalities to function. And I'm not so perfect myself…" The raven finished slowly with a dark tone that left Naruto puzzled, yet he was back to his normal, cheerful self within seconds. "Anyways, we should head to class now, the lessons are about to start."

With that, Neji walked ahead of the two, leaving a confused Naruto and a somewhat agonized Gaara behind. The two made their way to their classes just in time before the rain started pouring heavier. A pink haired girl waved to Naruto from within his classroom, causing him to bid Gaara farewell and rush towards his smiling friend. The redhead placed his headphones on – mostly to block the noise from other students – and proceeded to his assigned class.

Naruto placed his umbrella on the designed place near the classroom door and walked towards his seat, making himself comfortable beside his green-eyed friend, whom he greeted with a smile. "Good morning, Sakura-chan, how are you?"

"Bored outta my mind! Boring holiday, nothing exciting happened, the same old, same old… I'm thinking of committing a crime just to get some action around." The girl sighed in monotony, with fast-spoken words and barely pausing for a breath.

"It always amazes me how you find everything around you dull and boring."

"And it always amazes me how you find everything around you exciting and wonderful!"

"That's because it is."

"No, it's not. What's around you is around me, and it's dismal and without a taste."

"That's just your bleak look into things; you should change that to a much optimistic view."

Looking disgustedly at her long timed friend, Sakura clarified. "You're having enough optimism to last the two of us a lifetime, Hun."

Naruto shook his head at her remark. "A pessimist."

"Anyhow, forget my tedious life; tell me, did anything nice or exciting happen in yours?"

Haruno Sakura was bored to death and she knew that Naruto could fix that. He had been her friend since elementary school and over the years, he was able to help her treat all of her boredom-disorders by his fascinating stories. It didn't really matter to her if they were true or not, just that they were interesting enough to have her enjoy being alive.

Their friendship happened when he came to her one day and told her he liked her back in elementary school, she had turned him down politely saying she liked someone else; but from that time on, the two of them had been very good friends. They talked about their worst fears, their dreams, and Sakura even introduced the guy she liked to Naruto.

In Junior high, she'd gotten a boyfriend, his name was Daisuke, and they'd broken up now. Since he tried to force her to do things she didn't want, and when she told him that, he slapped her and called her names, Sakura decided she was through with trash. At that time, she broke up with him and told Naruto about what he did to her, the blond took Gaara and the two of them kicked the shit out of that son of a bitch's ass. Anyway, from that day on, Sakura considered Naruto to be just like her guardian angel, and she found out he could be very entertaining when she was bored, just like now.

"W-Well... you see... it was..." The blond stumbled, trying to come up with the right way to say it.

Now, Sakura was paying all her attention to Naruto; because he wasn't one to stutter easily, or lose his words. So whatever had him turn into a stammering parrot must've been good. "What Naruto?! Spill it already!"

"Umm…I kinda found out I had an uncle and he is kinda staying with us right now." He concluded to her the whole story before she ripped his head off.

"What does he look like?"

Naruto knew that Sakura wasn't one to go after appearances only, but she liked good looks, as many females who were around him. So he tried to give her a description that would sum it all. "Well, you will be surprised... he has black hair, black eyes, his skin is as pale as a dead man and has an ego the size of a damn mountain."

Sakura frowned at him. "Naruto, how is it that you're so good at telling stories and describing people, but when it's related to something that had happened to you, you turn into… into Gaara?"

The blond shrugged. "Dunno. It's kinda hard to describe him..."

"Hmm… this is making me eager to see the person who stripped you from your rhetoric potentials."

"I don't know about stripping me, but he's kinda different." Naruto made a face as the memory of his uncle's actions the other night came to haunt him, and a disturbed smile graced his lips.

Real different!

"What do you mean?"

"Sakura, like you said, I'm currently stripped out of my rhetoric potentials, so I won't be able to describe it right. Just come with me home and check him out."

"Hey, I have a boyfriend, you know," She giggled at his choice of words. "I only check boys out when I'm single, besides, I need to ask mum first, she said we might go shopping or something this morning. Can't remember right, I was more entranced with rain to hear her words."

Naruto scowled at his friend who had unintentionally reminded him of the dreadful drops that woke him up from a much deserved sleep. Still, before he was able to release a single word out, the whole class jumped when a loud sound banged and all lights went out after it. It was still morning, but the sun was gone due to the cloudy skies causing absolute darkness to rule the classrooms. The school's generators started functioning and in no time, the lights were restored, before the students could enter into a panic-spree that would leave the adults a huge headache to concur.

"Settle down, boys and girls, it's a little power failure; they'll fix it in no time. Right now, we'll work with the school's generators, until everything's back to normal."

The students quieted down, returning to their seats respectfully, and looked at a smiling Iruka-sensei. The brunet greeted his students, and then continued. "I hope you all did your homework right. Hand your copybooks to Sashimi here, and open your books on page..."

The entire class groaned and Iruka smiled.

Gaara sighed and ruffled his red locks. He splashed some water onto his face and looked at his reflection in the mirror. If dumb Naruto was able to pick up on his pathetic try to look sexy and mature, the one he was doing all this work for was sure to take notice. He looked at the black shirt and tch-ed at himself. Really, he shouldn't be thinking of ways to work on his appearances, he should just up and confess, gather all his courage and confess already, and hopefully, he'd get this whole shitty situation over with.

The redhead splashed some more water once again when his hands shivered, then elegantly walked out of the boys' room and on to the cafeteria. On his way passing the teacher's lounge, he saw Iruka-sensei chatting with Neji-sensei from the corner of his right eyes, and his face released a scowl at their close proximity and the hand Neji-sensei had on Iruka's shoulder. For a brief moment, his eyes caught on the beautiful adult's peculiar and mesmerizing eyes and swiftly, Gaara avoided the look and marched on.

He didn't want to see, didn't want to hear and mostly didn't want anything to do with Neji-sensei right now. Yet before he could reach his destination or move far enough that he won't be within calling-range, the voice that had enthralled him for a whole year now started calling out to him and without his consent, his legs stopped.

"Gaara-kun, Gaara-kun, wait up!"

Turning coolly, he bowed shortly to his homeroom teacher and commented. "Yes?"

"Back there, was there something you needed?"

"Nothing really."

"Oh, it seemed as if you needed something… from me," Neji emphasized, looking for any signs of hesitation or alter in emotions from the other and when the same nonchalant expression was given to him, he continued. "Well, it might have been just my imagination. Anyhow, if you need anything –"

"What I need is to go and eat before recess is over."

"There's still full twenty minutes before it ends, you can spare me five."

"…Why?"

Neji gave a smooth smile and winked. "Do I need a reason to request simple five minutes of your time?"

"When you have nothing to say, yes, I don't like wasting time."

"Who said I have nothing to say?"

Gaara's nonchalant look hardened with his next words. "Then, what do you have to say?"

"Hmmm, now, what do I have to say?" Neji evaded with a childish tone. "…Whoa, I seem to have forgotten."

"Sensei," Gaara called sternly while fixing his cool eyes on his teacher, reminding him of his position. "Would you please stop playing with me?"

A smile that was close to a smirk appeared on the calm features facing the redhead, and Neji countered. "Gaara-kun, I can't fathom what you're trying to imply."

"It's fine if you want to play dumb, I don't care either ways."

Gaara tried to move away and carry on with his path to his breakfast, yet before he could make an inch of movement, a pale arm laid on his shoulder and he was made to look up at two smiling orbs. The thought of how similar those lilac orbs looked right that minute to a fox's – always concealing its true meaning and faking authenticity – vibrated clearly inside Gaara's mind.

"Since you're my favorite student, I can't help not tease you."

"If you're not careful, Sensei, you might get disliked."

"Well, I won't need to worry about that with you, because," Softly, Neji moved his hand that was close to the hem of the black shirt Gaara was wearing and straightened it up familiarly. "You like me very much, don't you?"

Gaara felt his poker face starts to break and endanger giving him away when a pink, faint hue crept oh so slowly on his pale cheeks, decorating them fondly. The playful teacher observed with keen orbs as Gaara's doll face had earned yet another trait to make it more astonishing to him. He watched while his always so stoic student averted his eyes and slowly pinched Neji's hand away.

Neji smirked to himself and faked a pout with a dramatic withdrawal to his hand that resulted in a roll from those gorgeous jade orbs and a manly voice sounding so quietly.

"…I'm afraid playing time's over, Sensei; since lunch break's about to finish and I need to eat now."

Neji mimicked the other's previous action and rolled his eyes at the tall male who chose to run away rather than confront him like the man he wanted to become. Having been left with no choice but to watch the redhead leave – since Gaara departed shortly after the last syllable had left his lips –, Neji leaned on the wall beside him and whispered with a deep chuckle to himself.

"Ahhh… trying to be so mature just for me, how cute can you get, Gaa-chan?"

The lessons on that cloudy day couldn't get any more boring for Naruto. He felt like the world was playing some cruel game and he was its hero. First, he fell asleep in his Geography class, and was lucky that all he got as punishment was cleaning the board. Yet that punishment had sinfully resulted in the unfortunate event of being late to his Chemistry class, and having the bad luck he always had on rainy days, Kakashi-sensei caught him and he was grounded a detention for two hours after school. As if that wasn't enough, his detention was with the new substitute teacher who he didn't know a damn thing about except that he was ruthless as hell and didn't tolerate troublesome youths.

Naruto had even heard of some circulating rumors, claiming that this particular teacher made students clean each bathroom with their own toothbrushes. Of course, he was old enough to know those rumors were nothing but rumors, simple lies made up to spook his peers from detention, however, a small part of him dreaded it. And finally, to put the icing on this disastrous day, Sakura said she had this cheerleading practice alongside her shopping spree with her mother, and thus she couldn't accompany him home. So now he was stuck with the apathetic friend of his, and the damn rain that was still pouring with its ungodly raindrops mocking him to no end.

"I hate my life!" Naruto shouted at the gymnasium hall they were currently occupying, and as usual, the only answer his redhead companion gave was a nod as he continued with shuffling through his playlist.

"Hn."

"Just react for God sake! You can't be this emotionless all the damn time," pleaded Naruto. "It's noon, show some emotions!"

"How do you know it's noon?" Came a snappish voice, which Naruto recognized to be Kiba's.

The blond rolled his eyes at the brunet and adjusted his crying-pose to a normal pose. "'Cause it's noon, Dog-Breath!"

"I don't want to be called that from a person whose fuck-buddy is a cup of noodles, and a disgusting one at that!"

"I'd like to hear you say that again, moron!"

"I said y–"

Before Kiba could open his mouth and trigger an unnecessary fight, Shino claimed those barking lips with his hands and voiced. "He said that the clouds are too heavy that you can't even see any sun or its rays. So, telling time counting on it isn't helping."

Naruto tsk-ed and rolled his eyes at the dog who was about to claw him any minute now. Yet, he was already withstanding detention as it was, there was no need to enroll in a fight and make the few hours extend into days with the creepy detention dude. So, taking a deep breath, he went with Shino's attempt to calm the atmosphere and explained the reason for his previous judgment.

"That shows it." His right index pointed to the clock ticking their boring class away. "They'd finally decided to honor us with a clock, and it clearly states the time…" he made sure his eyes were locked on Kiba's as he added, "Moron. Though I don't see an obvious reason for it."

Shino was using all his might to hold Kiba down thanks to Naruto's provocation. "Naruto, do aside from flaring him any further, please, and… I heard the girls complained that they couldn't determine the right time when it comes to changing teams since we don't have a clock in here."

"Still doesn't explain much, they don't need to tell any time, the couch has a stop-watch and he deals with all of those things himself. For God's sake, he's paid to do that!"

"Girls are into technicalities. They fancy details."

"And the devil's in the details." Gaara added into their conversation.

Naruto rolled his eyes at the sculpture beside him that had decided finally to grace them with his annoyingly quiet voice and smirked. "Oh, congratulations on finally finding a voice!"

"Hn."

Before the blond could blaze up again at one of his friends, Shino entered the picture and changed the subject. He began distracting Naruto with a silly conversation about the mashed potatoes that has been switched with chicken nuggets for their cafeteria menu for the upcoming week, and was glad when the peaceful atmosphere continued with Kiba choosing to chat with the other males present, who were throwing balls between them, and Gaara finding the melody he loved and started listening to it.

The four were sitting at their last period, PE, and the teacher hadn't shown up as of yet. Maybe he was stuck in traffic, or something got him to skip. Different sets of speculations went around on the subject; however, most knew that the most probable cause would be hooky. Their teacher was a lazy bum who didn't have any mind playing hooky on them, since to him; they were a bunch of wimpy kids who were best left wimpy.

"So, how about we hang out today after school?" Kiba came back with a suggestion to his friends from the group of boys who decided that picking up a racket and playing some tennis was better than just sitting by idly.

Shino was the first to answer his best friend with. "Club activates."

Then Naruto answered. "Detention."

And finally Gaara – after he was poked to remove his giant headphones and was asked again. "Can't. Kankuro needs help with his truck."

"You three are no fun! Party-poopers!"

"Well, not everyone is as free as you." Shino pointed out to his best friend, "Besides, if you joined that swimming club that has been chasing your ass since freshman year, you won't be feeling this bored."

The brunette frowned with his fangs showing. "I'd die before I'm seen with those sissies."

Shino soon scowled at his childhood friend's choice of words and said in a defensive tone. "I don't approve of you calling them that. They like swimming and have a great passion for it."

"Then you join them."

"I would if I had your talent. Seriously, just wasting time worthlessly hanging out with whoever has free time and wasting your talent isn't cool, Kiba. As your friend and someone who gives a damn about you, I don't approve of it!"

The brunet puffed his cheeks and rolled his eyes. "This isn't you being my friend; this is you turning into my mother… which is seriously very irritating. I don't want to join them period! Now can we talk about something that doesn't make me want to strangle you!?"

"Wel–"

There was a knock on the gym door that interrupted the bug-lover's words, and all heads turned to see who it was. After a minute, a gorgeous woman with black flowing hair that was tight up in a high ponytail entered. Her shorts made her long, graceful legs shine to her new students, and her beautiful light red lipstick glittered so wonderfully when she moved her lips to address them.

"Hello boys and girls, I'm Yamamto Aki-sensei, Aki-sensei for short. I'll be taking Tokishiro-sensei's place; he's on a leave for two months starting today. I was supposed to come earlier, but due to the short notice I've been given, it took me a while to get my things together, I apologize for the delay and thanks for not leaving to your homes."

Her golden eyes showed her students how grateful she felt for them not ditching class, the boys all whistled at the beauty that was going to infiltrate their ugly-teachers' base and refresh their eyes with eye candy for once, while the girls just rolled their eyes at the horn dogs known as the male population within school. The teacher smiled to them all.

The new PE teacher, Aki-sensei, introduced herself with confidence and a cheerful smile. Naruto believed her not to be so bad, after all, she was clearly on a whole new different scale than their old PE teacher, Toki-chan, since, for a start, this one didn't smell like a decaying corpse and didn't turn into a sex-offender when girls' skirts would elevate. He felt his bones shudder as he remembered that time when Toki-chan was trying to engrave the concept of dribbling a ball without dropping it to him, yes, no good memories to reminisce about there.

"Okay then class, now that's introduction is out the door, I'll make this period a free one, so we can get to know each other and I can learn some of my lovely students' names. How about that?"

By the cheer that resonated loudly throughout the gym, Naruto knew she had them wrapped tightly and happily around her finger.

The school day finally came to an end and Naruto was stuck with his detention when his friends bid him goodbye. Sakura told him that her practice would begin the minute his detention ends, and so he shouldn't wait for her and just continue on home. He told her he wanted to wait, but then she reminded him that she still had her mother's shopping trip and won't be able to come with him even if he did wait. So with a promise that tomorrow she would stop by in the morning on their way to school and see his uncle, the blond left.

As he was serving his detention, the hours felt like ages to Naruto and he wished some lightning would strike the school just so he could escape this hell. He was forced to clean the classroom he was currently in, luckily not the bathrooms or with a toothbrush either. There was a down side to his hellish detention, as well. After finishing with the classroom, he'd have to continue on to the hallway accompanying it and the three staircases up from there. Naruto snorted at this, he was being used like a slave to relieve the school's janitor who didn't even do that much work as it was.

However, he didn't have any chance in arguing with the substitute teacher about what he thought was better be done in his detention time – since his current school didn't really give a rat's ass about its students – and with a sigh, did the work that made him feel like he'd turned into a janitor himself.

After finishing, and finishing right, Naruto was allowed to leave to his home. A part of him was sluggish because of all the hard work he had done, and another was proud of the work he'd done, he wasn't a useless brat, thank you very much. So hoping to meet his warm and cozy bed and lay there for the rest of his miserable life, Naruto opened the front door and went inside. Putting his umbrella and shoes away, he declared, "I'm home."

There was no answer, and he didn't expect one either. His father was still at work, and for some reason, he didn't think his asshole of an uncle would be up and kicking at this time and in such a weather.

"Welcome back."

And apparently he was wrong.

Walking further into the house, the blond scoffed at the view in front of him. There on their white sofa sat the raven with one hand immersed in a bowl of popcorn whist the other lazily hugged the remote control. In a second, his insides started boiling. Here he was suffering the aftereffect of a day from hell while Sasuke was sitting like a lazy bum inside and enjoying a comfortable day. Sure, his anger didn't make sense, but he still felt pissed at being the only one who was suffering.

"Why do you look like something just crawled out your ass?" Sasuke glanced up at him before returning his gaze to the television.

"Hey I'm tired, it has been a long day, give me a break already." He sufficed with a curt answer showing how worn out he truly was, and from the way his uncle had shut his trap after, the information must have registered inside his brain.

Naruto went upstairs and took his sweet time changing and relaxing in a long, hot bath. He came down about one hour and a half later and plopped lazily beside Sasuke on the white sofa, making sure not to make a permanent dent with his plop.

"So, why were you late?" Sasuke asked. "Minato said you'd be home at four. You came at six."

"A lot of shit happened," Naruto shrugged.

"I've time to listen."

Naruto looked sideways to his uncle and clearly, the raven had nothing better to do, so he started. "Well, you see I kinda had a detention... don't give me that look... I was late on Chemistry, I was just fifteen minutes late, but the ass still gave me two hours' detention. I mean, legally they can't force me to stay at school past four. However, they don't give a shit about rules and I was forced to remain there."

"If you'd called me, I'd have known how to get you out of it," Sasuke offered.

Raising a skeptical eyebrow, Naruto clarified. "Shouldn't you be more like 'it's good that you stayed' or shit like that?"

"That's Minato's job, not mine," Sasuke scoffed. "He raises, I entertain."

"As far as I know, you haven't done any entertaining."

Yet before Sasuke could reply to his nephew's tedious remark, the thunder made it presence known, sending Naruto to a tiny jolt, and to his bad luck, the black haired male beside him did all but notice. With a smirk that its owner didn't even bother hiding, Sasuke asked, "Edgy, are we?"

"S-Shut up! I was just surprised, that's all." The blond tried to get himself out of it but his stuttering kinda busted his out.

"Riiiight."

Naruto threw one of the cushion's his uncle's way – which he dodged rather easily – and pouted. "Really!"

"Hn."

They fell into a comfortable silence after a little teasing brawl, and neither sensed the need to speak right then. It was cozy and nice and Naruto felt himself starts to drift into peaceful dreams. Actually, it'd been a while since he last heard someone answer him with a 'welcome home', his father was always coming later than he did, except for some of those days when he was having a day off or was let go early. However, regardless, he was always the one doing the welcoming home, and for once, it was nice having to hear it from a person beside his father.

"Naruto?"

When his name escaped those lips that were always smirking at him, Naruto quirked an eye open. "…Hmmm?"

"Since you demanded I entertain you, how about we take a stroll out tonight?"

The blond took a minute to sober up, and when he did, he asked. "What do you mean?"

And here it came, the way he was being looked to as if he was the dumbest child alive, Naruto rolled his eyes and before he had the chance to defend himself, Sasuke continued with a mocking tone.

"Well, since the normal way of speaking doesn't register inside your small brain, I'm going to use simple words." He spoke carefully and slowly, using his hands to gesture along to his words. "How about we take a stroll outside tonight? It's such a waste to be inside when we can be outside." He paused. "Understand me now?"

Naruto threw a cushion at him again and stood up. "Shut up, old man. I got you the first time around. What I meant was, where do you plan to go with this dreadful storm outside?"

"You call some rain a 'dreadful storm?'" Sasuke asked, surprised. "Huh, really Minato raised a wuss."

It was spelled out there in bold for him. An obvious challenge laced with adventure. And just who was he to turn down a challenge as exciting as this and risk being called nothing but a coward?

"We're leaving at nine," Naruto stated without a second thought.

With that said, he headed to his room to get some shut-eye in those upcoming three hours. Naruto didn't have a clue about what he had just gotten himself into, but come on! How hard would it be to stroll in a storm?

As he fell into deep slumber that evening, Naruto presumed the answer to be not too hard.

Please, leave a review if you'd enjoyed the chapter and let me know your thoughts, thanks for reading!