A/N: Awwh, I enjoy writing this so much!

2. Tryouts

Few days had passed by since the sandwich incident and Naruto found himself very busy with his MMA training, he stayed at school gym very late, just to prepare things for his tryouts and sometimes he worked until he nearly passed out from exhaustion. Even though he felt constantly tired, he loved to do it, because he somehow felt useful and that was enough reason for him to continue. He really wanted to make a good impression, especially on a certain Redhead who had been pissing him off greatly these days, Naruto had heard he was going to attend one of his tryouts and he wanted to make sure everything was perfect.

One evening, he was roaming through the school hallways without any purpose, eyes closed as he proceed through places he had known very well, but what he did not expect, was a huge bulge on his forehead from bumping into someone. He quickly opened his eyes and rubbed his head in a painful manner. "Hey, I'm sorry, are you alright? Huh, Hinata? What are you doing here?"

The young girl nearly fainted again, as she realized who was in front of her, it made Naruto raise an eyebrow at her and the time seemed to stop at that moment, though in reality only a few seconds had gone by. Hell by welcomed if she wasn't staring at Naruto's mouth now, and the blonde was positive that such look was at least a little bit odd. To prevent the situation from getting more unpleasant, he smiled and patted her on the shoulder in non-other-but-friendly-way. She seemed to get the message and looked away from his lips, cheeks still burning.

"I saw Gaara and I wanted to tell him the school is about to close, but he disappeared and I can't find him anywhere." She tried to composure herself so that Naruto would be able to understand her shaking voice, and he did. Again, that amicable smile was present on his lips it made her blush

even more.

"You can go home, Hinata. I will take care of it, 'kay?" And even though Hinata wanted to offer him help, she never found the guts to do it, so slowly nodding, she left Naruto in a hallway to his own fate.

"Yosh, where are you hiding, you little bastard! I can play hide and seek very well." He cracked his knuckles and went into search.

/

The sun had touched the horizon and soon after went to sleep, as night took over the day and the evening colors changed into deep purple and gray. It's wasn't pitch black yet, so Naruto hadn't had to turn on the little flashlight on his phone, and he was used to dark anyway. And though he didn't know where Gaara had been hiding, he automatically went upstairs to the roof. There was a breeze that picked up so often, and it was just strong enough that, combined with nightfall, Naruto was almost freezing. He started to regret his lack of clothes and the cold sweat from his training made it all a little bit worse. A beautiful view of the evening city had came to him as he stopped his steps right on the edge of the roof, smiling sheepishly, he spoke without even looking at the person he was talking to.

"It's nice here, isn't it?" And just when words died on his lips, he turned around to face Gaara's usual glare. The redhead sat on the other side of the roof, but the place was so small that Naruto was positive he had to hear him. He didn't reply at first, and looking away from that tornado boy, he sighed and shook his head. A little string of wind picked up some of the fallen leaves and ruffled Gaara's hair at the same time as a street light shone through the red strands like a fire through burnt logs of wood. Naruto found himself staring and before he had the chance to hide it, Gaara faced him again, and scratching his head, the blond man quickly dropped his gaze to the ground, suddenly feeling stupid.

"Are you fucking stalking me?" Gaara asked with deadly tone that pierced his lips and Naruto had the chance to see a little silver ball resting on the redhead's tongue. A piercing. This red haired-somehow good looking-with beautiful mouth and a piercing-stupid-boy was really getting on Naruto's nerves. He slammed his forehead maybe a little too much for someone who didn't enjoy masochistic practices.

"Auch. Of course not! I met Hinata and she told me you're still here, so I came to tell you the school is about to close the gates and we should hurry, if we don't wanna spend the night in here, that's all." Naruto's loud voice echoed through the air, as if it tried to sing a melody with the humming wind, but Gaara didn't like it nonetheless.

"I didn't ask you why you're here, fucker. And it's none of your fucking business, where I spend the night or not. Now move your ass a little, would you? You're in my way." Gaara stood up and walked up to the exit, he didn't want to spend the night in here, it was cold. Naruto could only narrow his gaze at him.

"You're impossible, annoying and I wanna hit your face, I've never met anyone like you." Naruto said, he was getting upset again, really, what was with this guy, anyway? A cheeky smirk curved Gaara's lips, his tongue peeked out for a brief moment and Naruto could see his piercing again, as Gaara slowly licked his bottom lip in a non sexual way, it looked like he was playing with that little metal ball and he didn't even notice he was doing it in the first place. But Naruto definitely noticed and it made him feel uncomfortable. His low razor-like voice sounded like Naruto's words amused him a little, and even though he remained stoic, these turquoise eyes of his were alive and full of untold meanings. Gaara was simply speaking with his eyes, all the while his face stayed untouched.

"I'm most certainly very possible, you're more annoying and I don't want to hit your stupid face, because I would get dirty. We can agree on one thing though, I've never met anyone like you." He passed through him and Naruto could hear quiet clink as Gaara's teeth met his piercing, it made him twitch for some unknown reason, so feeling angry again, he turned around to realize Gaara was gone. What a creep!

/

"That bastard is really getting on my nerves, Sasuke, Even I wanted to punch him in the face!" Naruto threw his hands theatrally around him and slid down to his chair beside his friend. He was irritated, and he kept looking around the library to see if the redhead was somewhere near. Sasuke, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying his friend's annoyance. Dark eyes full of amused sparkles, lips raised up and endless mockery were part of Sasuke's character.

"Are you sure you want to punch him? You seem to be talking about him a lot lately." The raven muttered, uninterested in such subject, he gathered all his things and stood up, adding slowly "Maybe you could go on ahead, we'll meet in the gym, nitwit." Naruto just glared at him and with unamused snort, he asked. "Have I?" As if Sasuke was making fun of him, when he said he had been talking about him a lot. But before the raven could reply, Naruto was out of the door.

Tryouts were about to start and Sasuke didn't want Naruto to be distracted by a certain redhead, so he found him in the corner of the library, he had known about his presence from the beginning, yet he was glad Naruto didn't notice him, and he caught his attention by poking his forehead. It made Gaara twitch with irritation, he shut his book rather loudly for his own liking and he looked up at the face of the young Uchiha, frowning in a hint of dissatisfaction.

"Fuck you, Uchiha - " A sudden motion of the raven caused Gaara to overthrow the chair he had been sitting on until now. Sasuke gripped the young redhead's shirt and stared hard at him, but Gaara showed no emotion, only his eyes glowed with disgust.

"Do not try to do this, shrimp, I've come to warn you that if you do something to Naruto during his tryouts, I will fuck you up like none other before." He hissed at him very dangerously, yet Gaara's lips turned upward into a smirk.

"I don't remember telling you I want to be fucked by you, Uchiha. Stop being a fucking asshole and let go of my shirt, you will ruin it." In a calm manner, Gaara muttered, it was somehow amazing how steady he had been even in situation like this.

"I don't care about your shirt, shrimp. But Naruto has been acting weird lately and I would bet my balls it's because of you. So be careful, I'm watching you. Now get the hell out of my sight, you should be preparing for your tryout, shrimp." Sasuke signaled a spitting on the floor, as if to show what he thought of him. He released the grip on his shirt and let go of it. He stared at him with distrust in his eyes for a moment, before leaving the library. Gaara too, slowly made his leave, making sure not to be so close to that fucked up Uchiha.

/

Naruto was overwhelmed with serotonin, grinning from ear to ear, giving everyone information on today's training. When Sasuke arrived at the gym, it seemed he had forgotten about the redhead completely, and dived into his work so enthusiastically that he even excited everyone around. That was a good start. And while Naruto gave instructions and smiles, Sasuke stepped forward and sat down on one of the free chairs for the existing team members. Suddenly, he remembered how pissed he was, when Naruto won the entire tournament and beat him in the last round, but it was good for the end, because there was no one more suitable in the entire school for this job, than Naruto. He deserved it. Gaara's red hair appeared in the crowd, as the sun beams shone through his red locks that caught Naruto's attention, the young blonde paused for a moment, as if he didn't know what to say at first, longing for oxygen, fortunately he found his composure again and continued eventually.

"So, you will draw your opponents from the existing team, of course you can come across anybody, so be sure to prepare yourself, then you will have a test duel to be ranked and divided into different teams where we will then work to improve your fitness, technique and so on. Any questions? " Naruto shouted to the crowd with a cheerful smile, but his eyes continued to escape somewhere else - Gaara - as if they could not break away from him. It did not take long, and Gaara fixed his eyes on him too, and Naruto felt as if the redhead was talking to him, notwithstanding he didn't show any signs of communication whatsoever. Few second after that, Naruto broke the thread of their little game, pulled out the first pair of names and he called on them to come forward and launch their duels.

"Team seven, Sai versus Shino! Welcome and have a fair fight!" Naruto clapped his hands and with a sheepish smile, he sat beside Sasuke to watch it, pullig out a notebook and a pen to write down his thoughts, he devoted himself to the duel, just enough to forget about Gaara.

As they started the first fight, Gaara's attention returned to it, but not long after that he overheard someone behind his back, the same annoying voice from the first day of school, as she said. "Hey, isn't it hilarious to see Naruto in charge? Back in middle school, everyone made fun of him for being stupid and worthless and now he's the top MMA fighter? I think he had to suck someone's balls so hard to achieve this, I bet he still sucks and he's good for nothing." Gaara narrowed his gaze at the mats and tried to ignore that stupidly nasty voice, that resonated in his ears. But as soon as she said it, a cheeky laugh followed. Gaara suspected it was someone who wanted to make Naruto fuck things up today and he didn't like it. Not for the blond, but because he really wanted to try this shit. He slowly exhaled and that was when another voice busted into his hearing. "You're overdoing it, I've seen him quite some times, when he trained and he was able to endure six hours of training. He's got some amazing stamina and I think it's his hard work that brought him here to this point."

"Stop being stupid, everyone knows he likes to suck cocks, that's because no one had seen him with a girl, dummy. I know some of the girls he had refused and they're all very pretty in my opinion." The annoying girl said, her tone sounded grumpy and Gaara thought that one of these rejected ones must've been her, his guess was right, because the other voice chuckled and replied.

"Yeah, and you're on top of that non-existent list of rejected, am I right?" As the guy proceeded with the answer, Gaara could hear a light smack noise, as if she had slapped him, so the redhead looked over his shoulder to see some guy with a spiky ponytail rubbing his cheek in a lazy manner.

"Girls are just so troublesome." A husky whisper escaped his lips as he locked his eyes with Gaara's, but the redhead didn't say a word, so he eventually stopped paying attention to him. Gaara returned his gaze to the ending fight, Sai had won against Shino.

One hour later, it was Gaara's turn to stand on mats, he quickly drew a piece of paper and handed it to Naruto, not bothering to even look at him. The blond, on the contrary, tried so hard not to stare at the redhead in any way, but the silent clink of his piercing distracted him, so he snapped his eyes on that damned thing, only to find out the redhead's lips were parted and the little silver ball rested between them. Naruto shook his head and gulped, not understanding his feelings at all, and read the paper.

"Team seven, number three versus Gaara Sabaku." He frowned and looked at Gaara, as if it was a mistake.

"Naruto, that's your number." A silent mutter came out from behind, Sasuke butted in quietly and Naruto looked over at him, eyes wild and alive with uncertainty. His dear bastard friend only smirked and patted him on the shoulder.

"Go on, you little foxy tiger. Show him what you've got." Naruto smiled at his friend, maybe feeling a little bit uneasy, but he faced Gaara with wild and fiery eyes nonetheless.

And all of sudden, as Naruto stepped on the mats, Gaara understood. He wasn't just a champion. His entire presence seemed to vibrate through the floor, as if he had that much impact on a simple human being, that his attitude could weaken anyone's legs. It wasn't just his posture, it wasn't his clenched fists and it certainly wasn't his puppy eyes that had won all those battles.

I've grown out of losing. His presence seemed to say, the blue of the sky slowly deepened into dark and revolting oceans that no one could ever control. Like a tornado on the ocean's surface. Gaara regretted his decision to cheat at the draws and now all he was left with was this beast. He got kind of curious who had turned this sweet and amicable tornado boy into a demon in the ring. He somewhat wanted to know what was behind all this, and thus he attacked him first to see his strength for himself. Throwing his fist in the air, just to distract him, was a decent plan, but the blond saw through it and dodged the second punch before Gaara could even react. Was he really reading movements so skillfully, that he knew what was about to come? If that was the case, then Gaara was seriously fucked. When the first blow hit him directly in his chin, and a sharp pain ran under his skin right to the bone, he felt like his whole body had enliven. He swallowed and silently cursed, quickly kneeling down and trying to kick Naruto's legs, but the blond destroyed his intentions. Without realizing what he was doing, he jumped to get him to the floor, but Naruto snatched Gaara's wrist and tossed him over his head to the ground beneath him.

"Fight, dammit! Don't hold back!" A vivid voice rose in the air and rolled along with the droplets of sweat that gleamed at his forehead. Gaara laid on the floor, his breath lost on the waves of adrenaline, staring at this monster above him. Naruto was stealing his control bit by bit, and Gaara wanted it back, so as the blond leaned forward, the redhead wrapped his legs around the other man's waist and pulled him down. The closeness had destroyed all the anger Naruto felt as the sweet smell, floating in close proximity to Gaara's skin, struck him in the nose. He smelled like depths of the unknown, which seemed so remote and forbidden. And when Naruto caught the young man in the trap of his strong arms, a soft, painful moan, that seemed unsuitable for the lips of a redhead, attacked his hearing again. Gaara smelled like endless desert dales that Naruto did not know, like the dangerous sandstorm that he wanted to swallow. And before he could find his composure back, the redhead raised his head and two emerald stones, reflected in the deep abysses of the south, looked at him through the narrowed eyed lids. He noticed.

And then Naruto let go, turning his gaze away, the fight had came to an end. His own eyes were burning with untold desire and suddenly, he felt angry again. On the other hand, Gaara seemed to be angry too, so they had something in common in the end.

"I told you to fight back, why have you been holding back all this time?" Naruto asked abruptly, as the whole first tryout ended, and Gaara was just about to leave the place, but blond's words made him twitch.

"I haven't." Gaara halted, before his gaze followed a path on Naruto's body and landed on his face. Again, his eyes seemed to speak and Naruto had a feeling they also seemed to know, as if Gaara's entire communication depended on his gaze.

"You have." A flash of madness revolted in both Naruto's and Gaara's expressions and if it weren't for Sasuke, they would most certainly get in another fight.

"You can go, Sabaku, we will inform you about the results." Raven said uncompromisingly, all the while his hand landed on Naruto's shoulder and he glowered at him suspiciously.
"Naruto..."
"Yeah?" The blond mumbled, not paying any attention to his bastard friend, because he was looking at Gaara's disappearing back.

"You're an asshole and I think you would look extremely sexy in a maid's dress, also, you should stick your nose into Sabaku's ass, so you can smell just like him." Sasuke managed to say in a very serious manner, but the corners of his lips were turned upwards, and just as he predicted, Naruto haven't been paying any attention to him, so he smacked a piece of unwanted salad from his sandwich on top of his friend's head and smirked.
"Hmmm… Gaara said he was gay."
"Wait, what?!" Naruto clamored in disbelief, wide eyes full of wonder.

"Yeah, figures. I am kidding, you nitwit, but you weren't listening."

"I'm always listening!" He shouted at Sasuke, almost sounding hurt, but he managed to stay focused, never looking for a certain redhead anymore. Well, at least for that moment.

Later on, Naruto told himself that the weird feeling he had felt, when he was so close to Gaara, was probably just a mere irritation and nothing else. What else could it even be, right?

A/N: I'm so tired, this is by far the longest chapter. I hope it's good, not boring and all that stuff. Thank you for your reviews, it means a world to me. If there are any mistakes, please let me know, I don't see it anymore! D: :D