Criminal Insanity
Warnings: Okay, so Itachi might be a bit softened. Which might be interpreted as OOC. But... I plead the AU clause, which says: My universe, my manipulations. Muahahaha...
Disclaimer: Still don't own it. Probably never will. My Akatsuki cloak plans are being thwarted as well... Damn.
Other: Still need pairing ideas...
Spellcheck of the Day: Kankurou- Cancer
o.O.o.0.o.O.o.0.o.O.o
"'Tachi!"
"Oi, Itachi!"
"You're here! MOST EXCELLENT!" The flurry of greetings bemused him; usually the club members were not so eager to welcome him (save for one Rock Lee, but that boy was an exception to almost every rule Itachi could think of. And Itachi could think of a lot of rules.)
"And to what do I owe this enthusiasm?"
Itachi couldn't be said to like Drama club; it was simply part of a quest to be part of every club the school had to offer. Which, in turn, was merely an excuse to be able to continue to visit the high school, nearly four years after graduating. It was such a pain that his little brother was so much younger than him.
"We have gained a new member to add to our BEAUTIFUL DRAMA!" Lee cried. Literally. He usually calmed down after the first 20 minutes of a meeting- with notable exceptions. Itachi hoped for his attention span's sake that this was not one of those times. Watching Lee was like watching a train wreck happen- most people couldn't tear their eyes away from the horror.
Itachi, however, had no interest in train wrecks. What interested him was the moments before the train wreck, the dawning realization, apprehension, terror. Once the actual event began to occur, he couldn't care less.
"Yeah, yeah!" Tenten was, to the best of knowledge, only in Drama because she had been part of a formal 'training group with Lee. Thus, she was also resistant enough to the enthusiasm to add to it. "Kankurou-kuun!" she yelled, stamping her foot and looking around for the errant 'new guy.'
Itachi hoped for the new guy's sake that he was 'trained. About a month into the school year, Lee had driven off all the freshmen in the club who weren't 'trained. (In other words, all the freshmen.) Accidentally, of course. Lee blamed their lack of youthful enthusiasm.
So did the club sponsor, who was, oddly but appropriately enough, the boy's gym teacher, Maito Gai. "YOSH! AND WHO IS THIS NEW FLOWER IN OUR SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH?" Gai had somehow gotten hold of the hapless newbie and was clasping his hand, looking him up and down adoringly. Itachi found out why when he got a glimpse of the kid's face, which was decorated with elaborate swirls of purple face paint.
"Kankurou-kun." Hyuuga Neji calmly pried Gai off of Kankurou, who looked immediately relieved. "Kankurou-kun, this is Gai-sensei. Yes, he's always like this."
"Ah... right." Kankurou said, eying Gai still with mistrust.
"Kankurou-kun transferred- or moved?" Tenten looked to Kankurou for confirmation, who nodded. "Right, he moved here from Suna! So, is this permanent?"
"Yeah, probably." Kankurou said. He looked less ruffled now that Gai was further away.
"Kankurou-kun! I am most sincerely sorry to interrupt, but I would like to introduce you to our honorary senior member, Itachi-san!"
"Honorary senior member?"
"Yeah, well, he is in, what, his..." Tenten trailed off.
"Senior year of college." Neji supplied.
"Sankyuu."
Itachi thought that for all that Neji was usually a block of stone to rival himself, his sense of timing and precise speech did make him a perfect member for the drama club. Too bad he was only here under threat from Tenten and Lee.
"Then if you don't mind me asking, why are you here?" Kankurou inquired. He flinched when his eyes met Itachi's, but held the gaze evenly. Hm. Most people disliked looking Itachi in the eye, even when (as now) they were velvet black, not the hypnotic spinning Sharingan.
"We don't ask." One of the other students in the club, and un'trained upperclassman, spoke up from a corner where she was previously reading a book (and thus sparing herself the attentions of Gai or Lee).
"Yeah, all we ever get is, 'It was recommended.'" Tenten actually did a fairly good imitation of Itachi's tone. Maybe it was the drama. Or, more likely, just an effect of being around Neji for a great amount of her life. The Hyuuga could deadpan pretty well when he chose to.
"Ah." Kankurou looked at Tenten, breaking off from the staring contest with Itachi. Itachi sensed his relief, mostly hidden but still there.
"So, Kankurou-kun! Do you have a specialty?" Lee asked, all sparkles.
"Umn... well, yeah, actually."
"YOSH! Please, show us this most excellent specialty of yours!" Gai appeared again. Kankurou flinched (a good reflex to have around Gai).
"All right." he said hesitantly. He let his backpack fall to the floor and pulled out a wooden rag doll of some sort, its joints clicking. He stepped back, and suddenly the doll jerked up into a standing position. It waved cheerily at Gai, then clacked its way over to Tenten, moving almost as smoothly as a real person.
"Sugoi!" Tenten crouched down to examine it, unmindful of her skirt hiking up her thighs.
"How are you doing it?" One of the civilian students asked, looking on in awe. Of course. They couldn't see the chakra strings that ran, bright blue and clear as day to Itachi, from Kankurou's fingers to the doll's limbs.
"He's 'trained." Tenten said. Her tone added, 'Isn't it obvious?'
"A puppet master?" Itachi inquired. Kankurou's eyes darted to him; he nodded slowly. Wary. Somehow, he was more put off by Itachi's aura than reassured by his good looks. Interesting. Why was he so sensitive to the sinister nature of his chakra? Even with Itachi's usual shielding on it.
"Yeah. What do you mean by 'trained?"
The question came as a surprise- how could anyone be 'trained and not know it? Itachi narrowed his eyes in thought. Surely Suna wasn't so far behind as to use-
"Is that like a shinobi?"
Oh for– Suna was that behind. Not in talent, plainly, but language-wise... How archaic.
Lee and Tenten were staring at him in confusion; Neji shook his head in despair, whether at their lack of knowledge or Kankurou's.
"Konoha and Fire Country haven't used 'shinobi' since at least half a century ago. Shinobi, ninja, kunoichi- it's all outdated now." Neji said.
"...Ah. That's gonna take a while to get used to."
"MOST MARVELOUS!" Gai broke out, ending the awkward moment before it could really begin. "Let us induct Kankurou-kun into our modern world of youthfulness! SKIT TIME!"
Even Itachi couldn't stop the immediate internal "Oh, shit," reaction.
o.O.o.O.o.O.o
Sasuke hadn't been to school today. Itachi had no way of knowing this from the day, since he was busy attending college classes, but the lock on his locker was still on the exact same number it had been on after Sasuke stomped away yesterday. Sasuke always twirled it after he closed it- so it hadn't been opened that day.
Hmph. The fool must have really gotten himself sick, to stay home from school. And he was probably in denial about it all the way. If those parents weren't careful, he would end up coming to school tomorrow, sick or not.
Itachi frowned. And they probably wouldn't be careful, would they. Oh no, Sasuke was an Uchiha, and therefore should go to school, should continue working, as soon as possible. Uchihas were perfection, and perfection did not pause for weakness. The idiots. Itachi had been there, he had been pushed, sometimes harder than any of them. He had pushed himself, nearly beyond human capability, he had been (was) the closest to perfection any of them had gotten.
Perfect enough to realize that their ideal was actually naive, stupid, not achievable. That to stay there meant to continue to be pushed, and eventually to lose his mind. He had been on the edge of that, hating them all. It had driven him to achieve the Mangekyo Sharingan, but the repercussions of actually gaining it- killing his closest friend, his only friend in the clan- had driven him away. He left, just like that, and the relief from the expectations, the admonitions, the pressure of the clan had saved his sanity. He only knew afterwards how close a call it had been.
He wanted to make sure Sasuke was spared from that hell. He used to be so adorable, before Itachi left, before the perceived betrayal and the new weight of the clan's expectations turned him into the silent, brooding teen he was now. Itachi could see it in his eyes by now, the beginning of the psychosis, the perfection. It was different for Sasuke; he didn't resent it, he had brainwashed himself to perfection in his quest to catch up to Itachi, long before the clan turned on him. But it was beginning to turn, to the insanity, the willingness to do absolutely anything.
And because Sasuke wasn't Itachi, he hadn't soared straight up into the ranks of perfection among the 'trained by age seven, he couldn't see. Even having finally achieved the Sharingan in his rivalry with the blonde, he couldn't see what was being done to him, see to the heart of the 'perfection' and find it impossible as Itachi had. One could believe oneself perfect... But you never really were.
Ah well. Foolish little brother. Itachi would just have to show him. Wasn't that what older brothers were for?
o.O.o.0.o.O.o
Kankurou returned home from the Drama club meeting (he'd actually been abducted for it by one Rock Lee, who had seized him apparently both because he was new and on account of his face paint) slightly worn out. Which sucked, because they were still working on unpacking their stuff, trying to get locks installed on the cupboard doors, and managing to get something to eat all at the same time.
Temari was talking to the lock man right now. Or at least, whatever kind of person you talked to in order to get locks installed.
"Yes, for the cupboards. I need this done before Friday. What? No! Umn, just a minute." She put her hand over her cell phone mouthpiece and leaned around the kitchen door. "Kankurou! Help me count the cabinets!"
"What?" He went into the kitchen, bewildered.
"Get the bottom!" she hissed. He counted, hurriedly. One, two, three... seven separate doors. They had some serious cabinet space in here.
"Seven doors." he announced.
"Okay, good." She went back to the phone. "All right, we've got 16 that we need done. Oh, and who can I talk to about getting a lock on the refrigerator?"
"I told you we should have just brought the old one."
She mouthed, 'Shut up!' at him with a glare. "Mm-hm. Yes, I'm perfectly serious. Look, why do you want to know? Do you care if we lock our food up?'
Woo, this person was really annoying Temari. Kankurou debated tiptoing away, but she'd probably just get more pissed. He lounged against the counter, which was littered with half-empty boxes of kitchenware, in the meantime.
"Where's Gaara?"
She pointed up. The roof, then.
Finally she hung the phone up with a frustrated sigh. "God, I fucking hate people. I say next time Gaara wants to kill one, let him."
"Wow." Kankurou raised an eyebrow. "What's got your panties in a twist?"
"Shut up. I swear that guy on the phone was hitting on me. He doesn't even know what I look like! Is that desperate or what? He's obviously a civilian, too."
"Well, it's kind of hard to tell you're a shinobi over the phone, nee-chan."
"Don't call me that, you idiot. I'll stay home tomorrow; they're coming around noon."
"Okay." Kankurou wandered across the hall to the living room. Empty boxes littered the floor, but the couch, rug, TV, and video stand were all set up already. "Hey, who got the living room set up?" he called.
"Gaara." Temari appeared behind him. "He took his boxes up, set up the living room just like that, said we could take care of the videos, and went out to the roof."
"Wow." Kankurou said again. He looked behind the TV set. "I'm impressed. I didn't know he even knew how to hook this stuff up."
"Well, it's not like he could electrocute himself or anything." Temari huffed. "He was holding the wires apart with sand. Now come help me unpack the kitchen."
"Hai, hai." Kankurou followed her back to the other room. A box was thrust into his hands. "What's this?"
"Your room has a lock on it, right? Hide that."
"...Sharp stuff?"
"No, pillows and towels. Completely harmless. What do you think it is?"
"You know he can just get kunai pretty easily, right?"
"You know he won't 'cause he's a freak, right?" she retorted. Kankurou assented (what else could he do?) and went to hide the kitchen implements in his room.
"So did you see Gaara at all during school?" he asked once back in the kitchen, helping Temari pull plates out of their padded boxes.
"Nope. But there's nobody dead or injured, that I can tell, so maybe he's doing better."
"Pff. We can hope."
Gaara came down around dinnertime, glanced at the food, and went up the half-flight of stairs into his room. Kankurou looked at Temari, who sighed.
They could hope.
o.O.o.0.o.O.o
"'Ey, teme. What's wrong with you?"
Sasuke glared at Naruto in the split second he had before he was besieged by girls. Augh. This was what he got for getting to school at this hour (damn it all- Naruto had gotten here before him? What the hell was up with that?)
"Touch me and I swear you a painful death." he said, his voice rough and scratchy from the cough he'd been suppressing all morning. Damn, damn, damn. There weren't enough curse words to express his frustration with this situation. He'd apparently- horror of horrors- slept through his alarm. Or by some reflex hit the snooze button, since it had rung again to wake him up. Sasuke never used the snooze button. He hadn't even known his clock had one. And to top it all off, today was Wednesday. Wednesday! Where the hell had Tuesday gone? He remembered being tired, being sick (blasphemy), but not much else, and apparently he'd slept right through Tuesday.
Okay, so he was obsessing. So sue him. Sasuke didn't miss school. Particularly Tuesdays, as they were the longest and most important days of the week. And how had he managed to come in late on a Wednesday? School didn't start until 10:30!
The girls had drawn back, giving Sasuke some much-needed space, and he ignored the questions they threw at him.
He only noticed it as he moved toward his seat in the back- there, in the corner, was the redhead from Monday. Watching. Him. Pale green eyes unblinking, still thickly lined in black.
The itching in the back of his throat started, and he focused on fighting it down rather than figuring out what (if anything) to do about the Suna 'trained being in their class now.
Naruto put his hands on Sasuke's desk, leaning down and peering at him critically as Sasuke sat down. Whatever biting comment he could make was lost because he was afraid he'd start coughing if he started to talk.
"Sasuke..." No 'teme?' "Are you- sick?"
Immediately there was a flurry of consternation and concern among the girls.
"It's nothing... dobe." He kept his words tight, hating the way they irritated his throat and made suppression harder.
"Interesting as I'm sure Sasuke's desk is, I'd appreciate it if you all would get back to your own desks so that we can get started." Iruka's voice cut through the chatter. Sasuke praised some benevolent God.
Homeroom passed slowly, as usual. Announcements about various clubs and events were made. Sasuke paid no attention; making his usual front of paying attention was enough.
Passing period. There was less time today, since the math teacher was not likely to be late like Kakashi.
"Sasuke-kun!" Ino and Sakura lead the chorus. "Are you okay? Where were you yesterday?"
"Haku!" Naruto's usual shout of greeting rang out.
"What's going on?" Haku asked. "Sasuke's back?"
The girls put up their usual chatter of ownership. Sasuke wished more of them would be like Hinata- quiet and uninterested- or at least like a few of the saner un'trained girls, who generally avoided him or treated him like any other boy.
"Oh, shush." Haku tsked. "Amanda wants to talk to you."
And just like that, half of them (Sakura and Ino included) were gone. The others drew away from Haku, shy of the little group of 'trained that was gathering. Kiba had followed Naruto over, and Haku was leaning over Sasuke's desk, eying him much as Naruto had.
"You're sick." Haku said. Crap. Unlike Naruto, Haku sounded quite sure of himself.
"I am not." Sasuke said indignantly.
Haku's cool hand rested on his forehead briefly, making Sasuke flinch away. "You're sick." he repeated. "You shouldn't even be here with a fever like that."
Sasuke glared and Haku rolled his eyes. "I'm fine." he reiterated.
"Sure, sure... if you get sicker, though, don't blame me. Naruto, keep him out of gym for me, okay?"
"Sure thing, Haku." Naruto smirked at Sasuke. Crap He was going to enjoy this far too much.
"Ne, Gaara!" Haku slipped past Sasuke's desk and settled onto the one next to Gaara's. "How do you like this class?"
"..." Gaara seemed to regard Haku as something alien, something which he was not quite sure what to do about. Sasuke knew that feeling; it was the one he'd gotten when he first met Naruto and was then consequently introduced to Haku. Naruto was the first anomaly in Sasuke's experience of dealing with people; he was constantly up to something, always trying, and he never seemed to give up once he was set on something, whether it was a near-impossible prank or simply trying to get Sasuke to enter a conversation.
Haku was the second; his simple, consuming devotion to the man he lived with was something that Sasuke had trouble understanding. Eventually, he'd given up understanding- the closest Sasuke got to devotion was his obsessive hatred of Itachi. And even that he wouldn't admit.
This guy, though, this Gaara, seemed less like an anomaly; more like Naruto and Haku were the anomalies for him as well. Sasuke found himself focusing more on Gaara's short non-conversation with Haku, rather than Naruto and Kiba's admittedly rather inane discussion. Even though their focus was on mocking Sasuke.
Haku departed with a wave and his usual promise to see them at lunch, just before the bell rang again and the math teacher entered the room.
After math was lunch, since the day started so late. Naruto sat two desks away from Sasuke, rather than practically eating on his desk as he usually did. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this. Typically, Naruto insisted on annoying him as much as possible.
"Whatever you have, teme, I don't wanna get infected." Naruto said. Oh. Hmph. Like the idiot would actually manage to catch even a cold anyway. He was too dumb to get sick.
Haku did show up today, unlike Monday, taking Naruto's usual seat right in front of Sasuke. He shook his head at usual at Sasuke for not eating. Sasuke had snapped at Sakura and Ino when they offered him lunch, and they had retreated for once, to his great relief.
"Ne, so now we've got two anorexics." Haku sighed. Sasuke automatically followed his gaze, which lead him to Gaara, who was, indeed, not eating. Actually, he seemed to be- Sasuke turned away quickly when his eyes met green. Oh, hell- he was staring at him. He could feel the gaze on him, now that he knew it was there, and why the hell hadn't he noticed it earlier? Was the guy really that good, or was Sasuke really that out of it?
You two're gonna die of hunger'r something." Naruto mumbled, managing to speak while still inhaling his food (as always).
"No, Sasuke eats. You told me so yourself." Both of them looked accusingly at Gaara now.
"I fail to see how my eating habits became a topic for public discussion." Gaara spoke deliberately, as though choosing each of his words. Kind of the way Sasuke did around his father.
"Yare, yare." Haku sighed. "It's not public. It's me and Naruto. Now, Sasuke's anorexia..."
Naruto snorted. "Oh, yeah, that's public. Hey, hey, did you know they've got some sort of contest going for who can get you to accept a lunch first? Ever since you stopped bringing one. Why did you stop, anyway? That's so unfair, I mean, now I have to make my own lunch, and..."
Sasuke let his head drop to the desk in frustration. Screw Uchiha pride. He couldn't handle listening to Naruto gripe at him for the rest of lunch.
The bell woke him up, causing him to curse in shock. What the hell? Had he actually just fallen asleep in the middle of the day?
"You really shouldn't have come to school today, Sasuke." Haku chided him. Sasuke glared, rubbing his eyes, which were scratchy and dry. Haku rolled his eyes at him and gathered his stuff up to go back to his class.
"C'mon, people, it's gym time!" Kiba and Naruto were pestering Shikamaru, who was, as ever, completely unenthusiastic about the one class that actually heavily involved the use of their 'training. Sasuke, for once, found himself agreeing with that sentiment. His chakra was low and dim, which hadn't been helping the faint nausea or scratchy throat at all. Probably a good bit of it was going into keeping his symptoms as mild as they were.
He dragged out behind Sakura and Ino, who were each latched onto one of his arms and impervious to his glares. More unnerving than that was the continued gaze of the Gaara kid, which was probably by default, as he was right behind Sasuke, but freaky anyway.
Gai-sensei, the teacher for the 'trained this period, was enthusiastic as ever.
"Yosh! Are we all assembled? We shall begin this period with laps! Twenty of them! Let's get changed! Go, go, go!"
"Troublesome..." Shikamaru muttered.
Sasuke's plan (or rather Haku's admonishment) to take it easy was mutilated twice that period- first when Naruto and Kiba dragged him into their high-speed race of the twenty laps (Sasuke wasn't about to remind Naruto that this was the exact opposite of what Haku had told him to do), then when Gai announced that instead of the basketball unit they were working on (usually Sasuke regarded this as useless- sports were only light exercise for those who had been 'trained) they would be sparring. For once, Sasuke wished Gai had stuck to the lesson plan. Not that he ever really did.
He was paired up with Hinata, which would prove at once fortunate and slightly unlucky.
"I want you to battle with all of the fire of your burning youth! You may stop only when your enemy is incapacitated and cannot fight any longer! Remember; incapacitated- do not attempt to kill your opponent, as this will dim the brightness of our companionship and love!"
The rest of their teachers were really going to hate Gai. Half their class had high possibilities of being unconscious now.
Hinata was nervous at first, until Gai shouted his enthusiastic, "BEGIN!" She slipped into her stance at the same time Sasuke took his, activating her Byakugan. Damnit... Sasuke focused, and felt the familiar stinging sensation of the Sharingan emerging. He could feel his chakra drop another notch. Difficult, he figured, but Hinata was- holy shit, Hinata was taking the offensive.
It was only thanks to the Sharingan that he managed to avoid her first two attacks, his body heavy and making his movements rough and slow. He knocked her away with a kick to the gut, managed to kawarimi with one of the training dummies that Gai always littered the room with for that purpose, sent a series of small fireballs her way.
Then his chakra stuttered and died, and Hinata hit his arm with a Jyuuken strike before she froze. She narrowed her eyes at him, obviously sharpening her Byakugan image, and Sasuke realized that if he was paired with anyone else, he would have been screwed- they wouldn't have been able to tell.
His eyes watered as they turned back from the Sharingan. The irritation seemed to not only be in his throat anymore; his lungs were constricted, barely able to breathe with out setting off the coughing. He didn't succeed in suppressing it this time, and couldn't seem to stop once he'd started, each breath setting him off again.
"Sasuke-kun!" Hinata said, sounding at once irritated and concerned. He managed to stop coughing before he gagged, and found that the simultaneous battle going on between Ino and Shino had stopped as both of them stared at him, Ino shocked and worried, Shino impassive. The rest of the class, who had been shuttled to the bleachers until their turn, were staring as well.
"Hinata!" Ino said. "What did you do to him?"
"I-I didn't do anything!" Hinata protested. "You should have sat out if your chakra was that low, Sasuke-kun."
"What's the matter?" Gai whirled into their midst, looking from Hinata to Sasuke.
"Nothi–" His throat caught on the word and sent him into coughing again.
"Damnit, teme, Haku said it, I knew it was true!" Naruto marched down from the bleachers, pointing accusingly. "You're sick."
"Shut up." Sasuke rasped. That from somebody who had disbelieved it enough to jibe him into racing?
"Alas!" Gai wailed. "It is most disgraceful of me to not have noticed that one of my students was not in the prime of health!"
"I didn't actually notice it either, until I started focusing on his chakra system." Hinata admitted.
"Sasuke-kuun!" Sakura and Ino were suddenly smothering him. "Are you okay? Do you want to lie down? Do you have a fever?"
"Will you just go the fuck away?" he demanded. They drew back, shocked. "I'm fine!" He paused to suppress the cough. "Leave me alone."
"Go sit down, you dumbass." Naruto said. "Don't kill yourself. What would I tell Haku?"
"You're-" (cough) "helpful." Sasuke muttered, following Naruto's orders only because he would have anyway.
He found himself next to Gaara, who regarded him with the same intense stare that had so reminded him of Itachi before. In his current state it was almost comforting, rather than freaky or unnerving- like when Itachi had visited his room once when he was younger, and sick; just sat there and stared in such a single-minded way that it made him feel like he could trust that Itachi would never leave, that he could fall asleep and wake up and someone would still be there.
So Sasuke simply stared back this time, glazed, slightly irritated that the transfer student could make him remember his childhood, before Itachi left.
"Gaara and Shikamaru!" Gai called. "Why don't you take the place of Sasuke and our lovely Hinata?"
Sasuke watched the side of Gaara's mouth quirk up in a parody of a smirk. He pulled his backpack up onto the seat next to him and unzipped it before walking down the stairs, taking his time almost as much as Shikamaru. Sasuke's glazed state made it about a minute before he registered- was that sand sifting leisurely out of the bag?
Gai called, "Begin!" and directly afterwards there were twin shrieks from Sakura and Ino as the sand exploded out of the bag and raced to the battlefield. It took Sasuke another moment to realize that the shrieks had been more because the bag had been right next to him than simply because of the sand itself.
When he bothered to regard the gym floor again, Shikamaru was dodging pounces by the sand- not excessively successfully, either. He obviously had not managed to capture Gaara in his kagemane no jutsu- or perhaps it wouldn't have mattered, as Gaara was standing with his arms crossed, not moving. The sand wrapped around Shikamaru's ankle and within seconds, he was concealed save for his head.
"Ah, damnit..." could be heard. Judging by the way he had gone limp, though, Shikamaru didn't actually much care about this outcome- typical.
Gaara's little half-sneer was present again as Gai congratulated him and the sand unwrapped from Shikamaru and flew back to the backpack. Then he was there again, zipping up the bag and staring blatantly back at Sasuke.
Sasuke had been drained before, with nearly no chakra, but being drained and being drained and sick were two different things. He decided he almost like it, the laid-back, easy way the world seemed to flow around him. Sure, there were nasty surprises when people and time seemed to jump (he'd lost track of them) but if it weren't for the return of the throbbing headache and the cough, ti would be quite pleasant on the whole.
Haku came in at break time, looked at him exasperatedly, and proceeded to scold him about overdoing it in gym class and you-shouldn't-even-have-come-to-school-today, and if it weren't Haku it would have been blah, blah, blah. But it was Haku, and therefore Sasuke half-listened to his scolding, and only really drifted off when Haku rolled his eyes and hugged him around the shoulders, sighing.
"I give up."
Finally the day was over. Naruto volunteered to help him to his locker, which immediately set off the girls. Girls, Sasuke was fairly sure, was something that even in his present dreamy state he would not be able to handle. He told them to fuck off- something that Naruto said often enough, but Sasuke had never lowered himself to use. It was effective, though- they recoiled and chattered and left him alone. Naruto gave him a thumbs up and a, "Way to go, Sasuke!"
Sasuke was just closing his locker and turned around when- for the second time, goddamnit!- there was Itachi. Three feet away this time, and with his hand on his hip and that close fitting t-shirt over ripped fishnets, he rather looked a lot like a girl. Sasuke frowned.
"You're sick." Itachi said.
"You're in the way." Sasuke rasped.
Itachi didn't move. Sasuke glared.
"You're sick." Itachi repeated. Sasuke twitched. Why did everybody feel the need to point out that fact time and time again? If he were more lucid, he'd count up every single time it'd been said and he'd bet good money it came up to ten at least by now– something cool was against his cheek. Itachi. Touching him. Again! Without warning the coughing caught and started again- damn it- and Sasuke turned away to avoid the way Itachi was simply looking at him, so impassive.
When he had it under control and looked up, he found himself snared in Itachi's Sharingan. Oh, fuck no- and then Itachi whispered something suspiciously like "Sleep..." and he was out.
o.O.o.0.o.O.o.0.o.O.o
A/N: Fricking monster of a chapter. Over twice as long as the last one- I hope it makes up a bit for it being a long wait. However, I really wouldn't ever expect anything different. I'm exceedingly sorry, but I do have a life, and with the end of school and training for a 1600 plus mile bike trip... you get the picture.
Ah! At this point I would like to give credit where credit is due and was forgotten to give previously- inspiration for this pairing comes from 'Of Brothers and Lovers' by Jedi.Vixen. Her fic with this pairing is completely AMAZING, and I would advise you to read it. Other than the pairing, though, this is completely different from hers, and really in no way based upon it. Just to clear that up.
So, I'm getting together a couple of other pairings I want to do... Some of them are kind of crack, and I take KakaIru for granted. Mostly, what I need is pairings for Naruto. GIVE ME NARUTO PAIRINGS, people!! Or he stays single!!!
Thanks for reading and putting up with Kyoui, darlings!