Perchance to Dream CH2
Aw, thank you so much for all those lovely reviews! It's actually the most I've ever received for a single chapter, let alone a first one. :D
On a serious note, I do hope no-one thinks I'm making fun of people with narcolepsy, because that isn't the point of the story at all – I like Sasuke with a reason to be angsty, (and he does, trust me!), instead of just being a rich, snobby muppet like in most stories.
And on a less serious note, isn't NaruSasu sooo much better than SasuNaru? XD I mean I'll read both, but post-timeskip Naruto is the biggest seme going.
Naruto yawned, stretching his arms above his head until he felt the satisfying 'click' of his shoulders as he walked through the front gates of the college – still half asleep of course, and ten minutes late, but what's a guy to do when he forgot to set his alarm clock? He gazed around the reception area at a few stragglers, and those lucky people whose lessons hadn't begun yet before he made his way towards his English classroom; 'hang on a sec, was that–?'
"Sasuke?" Naruto croaked in his morning-voice, his eyes snapping back to focus on the skinny, black-haired and rather angry looking teen standing by the doors to the refectory. As he watched, Sasuke folded his arms across his chest and made his way slowly over to the blonde.
"You're late," he growled, glaring at Naruto before stopping some feet away, standing rigidly in the middle of the entrance hall; Naruto peered blearily at him, memories of the situation from the day before racing thick and fresh through his mind – he cleared his throat anxiously, scratching loosely behind his ear as his eyes dropped from Sasuke's face to the ground. Registering vaguely that Sasuke was probably feeling a lot more embarrassed than he was, Naruto wondered whether it would be a good idea to bring it up, let him know that there was no reason to dwell on it, or just pretend it had never happened.
"Yeah… I'm always late," he replied dimly, deciding on the latter course of action before turning uncertainly away from the pale boy and again set off towards his classroom. After a few steps, his feet faltered as something finally slid into place, permeating his sleepy haze. 'Shoot!'
"Remembered something?" he heard the Uchiha snap from over his shoulder, making him cringe and slap a palm to his forehead.
"I'm… supposed to take you to your class…" Naruto mumbled, turning back round to face the stony-faced boy. He attempted a trademark sheepish grin, that well-practised 'I'll-have-my-work-done-by-tomorrow-sensei' grin, but Sasuke was seemingly impervious to his charm, his eyebrows contracting and lips tightening.
"Yes, so if you're late, it makes me late," he explained slowly, as though to a five year old. Naruto didn't know how he did it – with every word Sasuke spoke it seemed to deflate him a little, like a flower having its petals ripped off. His voice seemed so lifeless, so lacking in expression, it was unlike anything Naruto had ever heard.
"True!" he chirped suddenly, deciding to force some good spirits into the morning, "and we're wasting even more time standing around here, so let's get going shall we? What lesson have you got first?"
"English Literature."
"Oh, me too. Who's your tutor?" Naruto asked, already beginning to take steps towards the allocated corridor, Sasuke stuffing his hands in his pockets and following.
"Uchiha-sensei," he replied shortly.
"Me too!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, smiling cheerfully as he turned back to look at Sasuke, just in time to see him roll his eyes. Naruto pouted – 'God, I'm not that bad am I?' he thought, continuing walking without saying another word. That is, until something else slid into place. "Hey! Uchiha-sensei, he's your brother right?"
"Sadly." Naruto laughed.
"Haha, yeah, I know what you mean – he can be a real hard ass," Naruto chuckled, "I can only imagine what it'd be like growing up with him. Or living with him for that matter!" he continued, completely tactlessly as per usual, not noticing Sasuke's expression darkening with every word he spoke.
"I still do live with him," the other boy snarled, causing Naruto's chuckles to come to an abrupt halt. The blonde cursed his incessant idiocy, and for one scary moment doubted whether he would ever be able to get Sasuke to like him – whenever he spoke to him he only seemed to worsen their 'relationship', and he wasn't even sure whether that poisonous glare he was constantly receiving was standard for everyone or specially reserved for him and his big mouth.
"Ha, yeah… well, like I said… great guy," Naruto tailed off weakly, dragging his feet around the corner into the English corridor towards their classroom door. It was only as he reached out for the brass knob that a shudder of apprehension ran down his spine – he was late for Uchiha-sensei's lesson – the man, the tyrant, the one teacher whom Naruto couldn't get away with first-naming. Taking a deep breath, he entered.
"Sorry I'm late, Uchiha-sensei!" he automatically hollered as soon as his head was through the frame, the class united in a communal groan as their loud-mouthed fellow student entered, followed by Sasuke. Uchiha-sensei appraised him boredly from his desk chair, and Naruto was suddenly struck with how amazingly similar he was to Sasuke – the hair, the eyes, the mouth…
"I expect it of you, you moron, but why are you late Sasuke?" Itachi drawled. Naruto frowned at the insult.
"It's my fault, sensei, I was late and I'm the one who's supposed to show him to his classes," Naruto explained in spite of his injured pride, cutting across Sasuke who had opened his mouth to speak.
"I'd have hoped some responsibility might have inspired you to arrive on time, Uzumaki. Now get out, Kaka–" he stopped suddenly, clearing his throat, "Hatake-sensei has asked that you pay him a visit."
"Yes sir," Naruto responded, turning and heading right back into the corridor he had just entered from, hearing an abrupt 'You sit down' directed at Sasuke from their tutor as he closed the door behind him. Naruto proceeded to bound down the winding passages around the college towards Kakashi-sensei's office, wondering what terrible feat he had in store for him. He grimaced as he remembered he didn't have a draft of his coursework as the headmistress had ordered him to produce by that morning.
He eventually reached the small wooden door in the centre of the physics labs, adorned with a small brass plaque which read: 'Hatake K. Head of Physics.' The blonde knocked tentatively against the door, and was shortly after met with a brief 'Enter!'
"You asked to see me, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked as he slid through the door, feigning as much politeness as was humanly possible. The science teacher was sitting in his chair, legs slightly apart, a long white lab coat scuffing the tiled floor. Hatake-sensei was undoubtedly one of the college's most… popular tutors, particularly amongst the females, staff and students alike. Naruto grimaced slightly as he remembered Sakura stating enthusiastically that she 'wouldn't kick him out of bed' not a week ago.
"Yes," the silver-haired older man replied in a curt tone that was quite unlike the one Naruto was accustomed to. "Sit down please, Uzumaki-san," he gestured towards the chair directly facing his desk. Naruto followed orders, perching on the edge of the wooden frame as he chewed his lip and gazed uncertainly at Kakashi; up close, Naruto thought he looked a little ill, or at least stressed.
"Er…" the blonde began when the other didn't speak, but merely clasped his hands and gazed intently at him. "If this is about the coursework, see, what happened was my dog, right? Yeah, well he–"
"Uzumaki-san, this is not related in any way to your elusive coursework," Kakashi cut across Naruto's nonsense, "can you think what else I could possibly want to see you about?" A silver eyebrow raised as he dropped his joined hands to his desk with a soft 'thud'. 'Uh oh, does he know?' Naruto panicked, remembering his shameless gossiping from the day before – 'it was for a good cause, I suppose' he consoled himself, deciding to play dumb in case Hatake-sensei had something completely different in mind.
"Nope, can't think of anything," he replied in a voice so overstuffed with innocence he knew immediately just wouldn't cut it with this teacher. Gai-sensei maybe, but not Kakashi.
"Oh, so it wasn't you who spread the story of myself and Uchiha-sensei behind the gym around the college?" Hatake-sensei asked calmly, unaware that he had just given away something big, something positively huge – Naruto's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, his mouth falling open as he gaped at the physics teacher. It took a few moments, thirty seconds perhaps, until Kakashi realised something was wrong. His own eyes widened, staring dumbfounded at Naruto before clapping both hands over his face, placing his elbows on the desk in front. "You didn't know it was Uchiha-sensei, did you?" he mumbled dejectedly through his fingers, knowing the answer before it had even left Naruto's mouth.
"No," the blonde found his voice, a myriad of thoughts running through his head – Sasuke's brother and Kakashi?! The two most lusted-after teachers in the entire building getting it on?! 'Boy, the girls would have an absolute field day off this!' he thought amusedly. After several tense moments, Kakashi's hands slid from his face, landing with a morose 'plop' on his lap.
"I suppose you're going to rush out and spread this around the moment I dismiss you?" he asked, ending Naruto's comical mental images of Sakura chasing the two men around with a video camera. Blue eyes snapped into focus upon the older man's face – 'Geez, he looks really tired,' the boy noticed, seeing red, puffy eyes and a pallid complexion. 'Maybe I should cut him some slack.'
"'Course not," Naruto replied cheerily, Kakashi's countenance becoming thoroughly suspicious. "Seriously, I'll keep it a secret."
"Do… do you promise?" the teacher asked warily. Naruto was hit with a sudden rush of power, hearing this teacher pleading with him, knowing he'd probably do anything to keep the whole thing under wraps.
"If…"
"If what?" Kakashi asked hurriedly, dreading what was about to come out of his student's mouth.
"If, I don't have to do any homework for a month!" the blonde exclaimed triumphantly, evidently having decided this was a befitting price to pay for having to live with the burden of such a secret. The silver-haired man looked thoughtful for a moment, before letting out a heavy sigh.
"Done." The two of them shook hands, and Naruto was quickly eschewed from the office and told to make his way quickly back to lesson.
"Got a message you wanna pass on to Uchiha-sensei?" Naruto grinned as Kakashi was about to close the door behind him.
"No! Now get out of here!" was his raised reply as the door was slammed in the boy's face, though not before Naruto had caught sight of the blush that had swallowed Kakashi's face. Still smirking to himself, and rather pleased with the way things had gone, he began to make his way back to his English classroom. Realising it would seem rather strange if he practically skipped back into the room after supposedly being reprimanded, Naruto put on his best angry-face before he pushed open the door and began to make his way to his seat. He almost made it as well, had he not been struck with such inspiration that it was hard to resist; feigning that he had forgotten something, Naruto made his way up to where Uchiha-sensei was sitting at his desk, bent down until he was level with his teacher's ear, and whispered:
"Kakashi-sensei said he can't stop thinking about you, and can't wait until your next free lesson," in the most seductive voice he could muster, before he turned and headed towards the back of the classroom where his seat was. He finally sat, looking up intently at Uchiha-sensei – his English teacher never did show much expression at the most critical of times, but he could have sworn that the smallest, the slightest, the most insignificant tinge of pink had crept onto his cheeks.
'Score! Now he knows that I know,' Naruto mentally punched a fist to the air, figuring that Itachi would have to be nicer to him, having always had somewhat of a grudge against the blonde haired idiot. Naruto smiled contemplatively, not realising that the lesson's work had been written on the board and everyone but himself was hard at work.
"What did you whisper to him?" a voice came suddenly down Naruto's left ear, causing him to release quite an unmanly squeak as he almost tumbled sideways off his chair; looking at the seat next to him as he steadied himself he saw Sasuke staring at him, looking, as always, more than pissed off with him for some unfathomable reason.
"That, my friend, is confidential information," Naruto replied, tapping his nose, deciding it would be better not to divulge the news of his brother's little affair for better reasons than his promise to Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke looked less than impressed, yet did not pursue the subject and instead turned to continue with his work – Naruto decided it would probably be a good idea if he followed suite, and so unpacked his pad of paper, a pen and began the lesson's tasks, not wanting to push his rattled teacher over the metaphorical edge.
There were perhaps ten minutes of silence, save the scratching of pens and the occasional cough or muttering from a few students, before it happened again. Naruto was busy pondering over what Shakespeare was trying to say in passage X, along with trying to remember the lunch room menu for Tuesdays, but was interrupted by a loud 'thud!' on the table to the left of his seat. His head snapped immediately towards the source of the sudden noise, and Naruto was hit with a strange sense of de ja vu as he saw Sasuke face down on the desk, though this time he had not landed on a pallet full of paint and instead on his exercise book.
Thankfully, Naruto saw that not many people had heard this time as he hurriedly scanned the room, although that wouldn't last for long as Sasuke's snores increased in volume with every breath he took; there was one person who had noticed though, and he was currently making his way from his seat at the front of the classroom towards their row of tables at the back, a booklet clutched in his hand and a worryingly stern look on his face – Uchiha-sensei had noticed.
Naruto's hand scurried to Sasuke's shoulder, shaking him violently as he watched their teacher draw closer. "Sasuke! Sasuke!" he whispered urgently, but to no response. He slid his hand upwards and grabbed onto the boy's black hair, and – 'Damn, this is some soft hair!' – began to tug at it desperately, not one bit liking the look in their approaching sensei's eyes; the number of people watching the proceedings had increased to include almost the entire class, and Naruto let his hand fall solemnly to his side, admitting defeat.
The students watched as their teacher grasped the booklet he was holding with both hands, rolled it into a tight cylinder, and collectively gasped as he brought it with a resounding 'slap!' upon Sasuke's sleeping head – Naruto felt an unexpected anger suddenly coil up inside his stomach, and he was about ready to leap out of his seat and begin to berate his teacher before the dark haired boy stirred, a hand coming up to rub the offended area at the back of his head as he sat up to see who his attacker was. His eyes flicked from the wad of papers still clasped tightly by his brother up to Itachi's face, which still looked somewhat severe.
'Shit! I'm supposed to do something stupid when this happens!' Naruto recalled, his mind jumping to the conversation that had followed the incident from Art class the previous day where he had promised to take everyone's mind off whenever Sasuke's narcolepsy showed up. 'What should I do?! I could tell everyone about Uchiha-sensei and Kakashi-sensei… but I promised I wouldn't – and besides, I can't play the same trick twice,' Naruto's mind was in overload, different pranks ran through his head like a reel of continuous film, he tried to think of a different piece of gossip he could spout, 'Lee fancies Sakura? Hinata bought a vibrator off Ebay? Kiba? Chouji? Hotdogs? Shikamaru?'
"ARGH!" he yelled in frustration, dropping his head to the desk resignedly.
"Whoa! It happened to Naruto too!" he heard some girl squeak from the other end of the room. 'Stupid cow… thinks I've fallen asleep' Naruto thought angrily, unable to comprehend the reason he was unable to cause spontaneous mayhem. 'Wait a minute… that's it!'
Naruto began to breathe heavily, pretending to snore, feeling the stares of the whole room on the back of his neck, waiting desperately for… 'SLAP!'
Bingo! The blonde sat up hurriedly, and pretended to be thoroughly disconcerted as he peered blearily around the room at all the concerned faces; well, concerned for the most part – the two Uchihas looking nothing short of baffled, Itachi's wrist lowering slowly after whacking Naruto over the head with his booklet.
"Whoa, that was weird. Hey, Uchiha-sensei? I don't feel so good – I think maybe me and Sasuke have caught a bug or something," he spoke matter-of-factly, willing desperately for their teacher to play along, almost winking at him before remembering that the entire class's eyes were still on them. Itachi's face remained, as always, completely unreadable as Naruto pleaded silently for him to send them out.
"Very well. You and Sasuke are to go to the sick bay and find a nurse – pack up your equipment," was the eventual response, and Naruto could have jumped for joy as he shoved his things haphazardly into his rucksack, mimicked by a bemused looking Sasuke before he grabbed the pale boy's wrist and dragged him out of the room amidst complaints of 'But they both looked fine before!' and 'I sure hope I don't catch what they've got' from random members of their class.
As soon as the door had clicked shut behind them, Sasuke jerked his arm out of Naruto's grasped and stepped backwards, staring at the taller boy with heated apprehension. Naruto was confused – hadn't he just saved this guy's ass? And he was still glaring at him? The two of them stood in silence, staring at each other for a few moments, for Naruto's part because he was at a total loss of what to say, being rather inept at interpreting other people's feelings. It was Sasuke who finally spoke, his eyes dropping to the ground as he scuffed his shoe lightly on the wooden floor.
"Why did you do that?" he asked shortly, no inflection of emotion in his voice causing it to sound more like a statement than a question. Naruto didn't quite know what to say – he didn't even know himself why he was so desperate to keep Sasuke safe from rumours, but there was something in Sasuke's scrawny frame, his constantly rigid composure, and those eyes that told Naruto so much and yet nothing at all that invoked a primal, raw feeling of need to protect him.
"'Cause… I promised you I would," the blonde replied, unable and unwilling to put his complicated and conflicting emotions into words. Sasuke looked disbelieving, taking his eyes from the floor and fixing them onto Naruto's, causing a distinct feeling of unease in the taller boy – he felt like everything running through his mind was written all over his face. He never was good at being inconspicuous.
"I know. But I never thought you'd actually follow it up," the pale teen stated.
"Well why wouldn't I?"
"You have no reason to," Sasuke replied after a slight pause, quieter this time, before exhaling softly through his nose and leaning back against the brick wall behind him.
"Well, you may not be the most social person I've ever met," Naruto began, grinning – Sasuke snorted. "But I made you a promise and I'm gonna stick to it, and like I said, any excuse to cause trouble is okay in my book."
"You're so strange," the shorter boy commented, which Naruto thought was a bit rich coming from him, but the blonde could have sworn he'd heard a fraction of a hint of amusement in Sasuke's voice, and was too elated to argue. "But thank you," he added. Naruto's smile widened as Sasuke dropped his gaze from his face, and he watched as the dark-haired boy turned and began walking down to the other end of the corridor; Naruto inhaled deeply, preparing to shout after Sasuke to see if he wanted to hang out, but decided that would probably be pushing it a bit – he felt strangely content in the knowledge that Sasuke appreciated what he was doing for him.
"I'll come and find you at the end of lunch!" Naruto yelled just as the other boy disappeared around the corner, to which Sasuke waved a lazy hand over his shoulder to show he had heard. 'Well if that wasn't progress, I don't know what is!' Naruto thought happily as he skipped off in the other direction, contemplating the possibilities of what he could do with all the spare time he'd managed to blag.
"Sakura! What're you doing here?" Naruto squeaked, startled out of his daydream as the pink-haired girl suddenly looming over him, blocking his sunlight.
"Same to you! Shouldn't you be in English?" she replied, flopping down on the grass next to her friend, pulling her skirt up slightly so the sun could reach most of her legs – there was a time when Naruto would at this point have practically choked on his own drool, but he and Sakura had become so close that he couldn't think of her in that way without squirming uncomfortably; 'it would be like making out with your sister!' he thought disgustedly.
"Careful Sakura, you might cause an explosion of youth if Lee was to come round the corner," Naruto giggled, earning a slap on the arm, but Sakura couldn't quite fight the smirk that crossed her face. "I got out of English early," he continued in response to her question, lying back and closing his eyes again.
"Oh – how come?"
"It's a long story," Naruto sighed, placing his arms behind his head and resting on his hands.
"Well, we've got…" Sakura glanced at her wrist, "two and a half hours until last lesson, including lunch time. So come on, spill." She sounded pretty determined, and Naruto knew she wouldn't quit until she'd wheedled the entire account of what had happened with Sasuke – should he tell her about his narcolepsy? Naruto couldn't remember whether he'd promised not to tell anyone or not, or whether he'd just try and cover it up whenever it happened. He was sure Sakura would keep it to herself if he asked her to, but the thought of divulging something that Sasuke was amazingly prickly about to someone who didn't even know him made Naruto feel rather ill at ease.
"Dunno if I can tell you," he replied, glancing up at her – he realised his mistake immediately as Sakura's eyes flashed excitedly. If he was unwilling to tell something, that must mean it's either extremely private or extremely juicy.
"Oh come on Naruto! You know you can tell me anything," she pleaded, rolling over and sitting up to lean on her forearms, facing Naruto expectantly.
"Yeah I know, but this isn't about me."
"Well who's it about then?" she enquired, possibly even more excited than before.
"Someone else."
"Well duh," Sakura drawled, pulling an idiotic face and rolling her eyes at Naruto. "Stop being stupid and tell me what's going on." Naruto breathed heavily.
"Do you uh… know the new kid?" he began hesitantly, still not completely sure whether or not he should tell Sakura everything.
"Oooh, the Uchiha boy? Yeah, he's in my Chemistry class – is he related to Uchiha-sensei?"
"They're brothers."
"Brothers? Oooh – just one is enough for me! Mmm, Uchiha-sensei. I wouldn't mind bending him over and –"
"Sakura!" Naruto quickly cut across before she got altogether too graphic.
"Oops. Sorry, yeah I know the new kid. What about him?" Sakura grinned apologetically – a trait she had learned from Naruto. The blonde boy sighed before he continued, a heavy feeling of guilt settling in his chest even though he hadn't said anything of importance yet. It just felt wrong to discuss Sasuke, but the confused teen couldn't quite put his finger on the reason.
"Well… Tsunade-sama told me to show him to all of his classrooms," he murmured. Sakura waited for him to elaborate for several moments, but when nothing else came, Naruto received another short slap on the arm.
"And?" she goaded.
"And well… he's got kind of – kind of like, a problem," Naruto mumbled, sitting up and fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. "He's got… wait, promise me if I tell you, you'll keep this a secret?" Sakura's face fell slightly, but she smiled reassuringly.
"Sure thing. Ino will be disappointed though, we haven't had any gossip for days…" she trailed off morosely, scratching her chin.
"My heart bleeds for you."
"Shut up, you don't understand. Okay, I won't tell – what's up with Uchiha-kun?" she asked, propping her head on her hands and continuing to gaze interestedly at Naruto. The blonde began absently ripping up blades of grass as he thought how best to phrase details of Sasuke's illness.
"He sometimes just… he just falls asleep. Like, bang. In the middle of everything," he said, not making eye contact with Sakura and trying to make it sound light-hearted, as though he wasn't completely tied up with wanting to know more about Sasuke and his problem and how he could help, which he was.
"Narcolepsy?" Sakura asked concernedly, startling Naruto as a few straggling pieces of grass fell from his hands. He turned to stare at her, eyes widening.
"You've heard about this before?" he asked, incredulous.
"Of course I have – I want to be a doctor, remember?" she replied, examining her nails. "Not many people – including you it seems – know about it though. I came across it when I was reading a medical journal. It's really quite rare."
Naruto almost imploded with questions, opening and closing his mouth several times wordlessly before deciding on the most important: "Is there a cure?"
"Nope. No cure," Sakura answered. Seeing Naruto's face fall, she continued, "but there is medication that can help control it, he's probably on some kind of steroid."
"But there's no cure…" Naruto repeated quietly, bringing his knees to his chest and twirling a flower he'd just picked between his fingers. 'Well, what could I do even if there was a cure? Go out and buy it for him? He'd think I was an absolute nut-job' Naruto mentally berated himself; Sakura watched him intently as his face darkened, blonde eyebrows contracting.
"Why are you so bothered? You've known him for what, two days?" she enquired, finding herself surprisingly interested.
"Yeah, I know but… I don't know," Naruto replied, clearing his throat and absently pushing his flower into Sakura's hair.
"Thanks," she chuckled lightly, "but it's not like you to have a mother-hen complex, Naruto. You've always been a 'look after number one' kinda guy."
"You know I'd do anything for you Sakura-cheeaaaaan," Naruto laughed, leaning over and puckering up his lips like he did all those years ago, when he was young and 'in love'.
"Put those away!" she giggled, punching him playfully on the arm, "but you know I'm right," she went on in a more serious voice – Naruto wasn't going to get off that easily; she wasn't even aware that Naruto could care about someone so much to actually want to help them out of some predicament, let alone someone he'd known for less than a week. She sat up on her knees, directly in front of the blonde teen and awaited a response, noticing the smile had fallen from his face and his eyes had dropped from her face to his shoes.
"Yeah you're right. But if you're looking for a reason why I'm interested I can't tell you, because I don't even know myself," he breathed heavily. "I told him I'd help him out as well – that I'd make a distraction whenever he fell asleep in class so people would forget about it."
"Jesus, Naruto! What's made you take such a shine to him? He's hardly the social butterfly – he just sat at the back of our Chemistry class on his own and didn't even bother introducing himself to the teacher, or anyone."
"I know, right? But there's something about him. I don't know, I can't explain it. It feels like he hates me but I don't know why and I've never been so bothered about stuff like this before – like, if you told me right now that… I dunno, Shino hated me, I wouldn't care in the slightest. But I want him to like me. Do you think I just… feel sorry for him or something?" Naruto finished his outpour with a confused, agitated glare at Sakura, as though it was her fault he couldn't understand his own feelings; she looked at him intently, biting her lip hesitantly before opening her mouth to reply.
"No… I don't think it's just you feeling sorry for him – that wouldn't make you want him to like you, it'd only explain why you want to help him," she mused, speaking slowly. "If I didn't know better I'd say you had a crush on him," she laughed weakly before catching sight of Naruto's steely expression, hurriedly clearing her throat, "but uh, that's obviously not the case. So… I'm left with the conclusion that you've hit your head on something and finally realised that it's important to sometimes take other people's feelings into consideration," she finished, looking up at Naruto who was watching her as intently as if every word she said was gospel. His countenance wrinkled as he comprehended everything she had said.
"But I haven't hit my head! And I still don't know why I want that complete arsehole to like me!" he snapped irately, throwing himself back into a lying position and covering his face with his arms - the darkness pressed against his eyelids however, only served as a projector for his mind – Sasuke in Tsunade's office, Sasuke painting him in Art, Sasuke falling asleep in his pallet, Sasuke scrubbing his face clean in the toilets, coloured rivulets of water running down his face… Sakura watched him sadly, coming to her own silent conclusion but deciding not to let Naruto know about it – somehow she got the feeling he wouldn't be too keen.
"Well, it seems like this is something you'll have to work out yourself," she said softly, patting Naruto on the leg consolingly before lying down next to him and peeling his arms away from his head. "Chin up blondie. Let's talk about something else." Receiving a non-committal grunt from Naruto, she scanned her mind for something interesting she could change to subject to. "Oh! Are you going to the dance this Saturday?" she asked excitedly, remembering the Easter Ball the college had planned. "You get a free Easter egg," she added, hoping to coax Naruto into some sort of enthusiasm by bringing chocolate into the equation.
"Maybe," he sighed, "will I have to bring a date?"
"Nah, not if you don't want to, or of course… you can't find anyone," she grinned, Naruto raised his head, his face a vision of theatrical shock.
"Are you saying that I, Uzumaki Naruto, the most charming young man in this entire college will be unable to find a date for this weekend?"
"I'm saying that you've left it a bit late. Of course, you could always ask Uchiha-kun if he'd go with you."
"Oi!" Naruto exclaimed, nudging Sakura's side so she rolled over onto her face.
"Oh, are you blushing Naru-chan?" she laughed, crawling over and pushing him back. The pair were soon rolling round the grass amidst grunts and girly squeals from both parties, before they eventually both collapsed, gasping for breath.
"Wasn't… blushing…" Naruto panted, wiping sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his t-shirt.
"I know," Sakura wheezed in response, and the two lay there for the remainder of their lunch time, soaking up the sunshine.
"Whoa, whoa – what time is it?" Naruto asked suddenly, sitting up from his heat-induced stupor and turning to Sakura. "Oi!" he yelled, grabbing her shoulder and shaking until the pink-headed girl opened a bleary eye.
"Un?"
"We fell asleep. What time is it?" he asked hastily as Sakura sat up, yawned and glanced at her watch. Her eyes widened slightly and she groaned, getting immediately to her feet and stretching.
"It's five minutes to lesson – Sannin-sama will explode if I'm late for Physical Ed," she explained. "See you later, Naruto!" she shouted over her shoulder as she sped off towards the sport's building. Naruto groaned – he also had Phys. Ed., but with a much more formidable tutor – Gai-sensei. Shuddering slightly as he thought of their spandex-clad instructor, Naruto pushed himself to his feet, scratching the back of his head. 'Now to find Sasuke…'
Five minutes was not a long time to search the entire college for the Uchiha, but Naruto couldn't bring himself to move at any great speed, still partly asleep from his and Sakura's little doze and because he wasn't exactly over-enthused to get to his lesson; he knew Sasuke would be mad with him if he was late for the second time that day, so he made an effort to drag his feet across the grass towards the main building a little faster. He passed into the shade of a large oak tree, stopping for a moment to relish how cool it was compared to the fierce glare of the sun on his back.
'Ugh, better get going, got to find… hang on a second…' he halted, gazing around for the source of a strange noise that had just carried to his ears – it sounded like a tractor, but why would a tractor be on college grounds? Naruto looked upwards, for the sake of it, and almost yelped in surprise as his eyes fell upon his quarry sprawled across the lowest branch of the tree, sleeping soundly, arms and legs dangling down with his cheek pressed firmly to the bark.
"Oi, Sasuke!" Naruto cupped a hand around his mouth and called up to him, not really expecting a response, and not receiving one as Sasuke continued to snore loudly without stirring in the slightest. Naruto walked a little closer to the branch, looking up at the dark-haired boy's peaceful face; it was strange the way all of the hate he emitted when awake seemed to dissipate completely as he slept. The blonde smiled slightly, toying with the idea of leaving Sasuke sleeping serenely in his tree, but deciding he'd undoubtedly be more than a little angry with him when he woke up.
Sighing resignedly, Naruto reached up and grabbed hold of Sasuke's ankle, which was just in his reach, and shook it slightly. "Sasuke! Wake up!" he tried again, but to no positive effect. 'Geez, when he sleeps, he sleeps hard', Naruto rolled his eyes, getting a better grip on the other boy's leg before pulling it slightly harder. "Wake up, you lazy bastard!" he yelled a little louder this time – Sasuke mumbled indistinctly in his sleep, but still refused to wake. Naruto frowned – 'he's going to make himself late for lesson at this rate!'
Naruto huffed angrily, placing his hands on his hips as he glared up at the snoozing Sasuke. He looked around the trunk of the tree for some sort of stick, or even an acorn he could throw up at him, but there was nothing; Gai would undoubtedly make them both do fifty laps around the track for every second they were late for his lesson – Naruto's apprehension growing as he knew Gai-sensei was not one to abide by council-set laws against child abuse. He stalked back over to Sasuke, grabbing his ankle for a second time. "Get…" he growled, "down!" as he gave the boy's skinny leg an almighty yank.
'Uh-oh!' was all that flashed through Naruto's mind as he watched, as if in slow motion, Sasuke sliding off his branch towards him – "Eeargh!"
Sasuke landed in Naruto's arms with a muffled 'flump!', the blonde having caught the other bridal style as he crashed down into him. 'Shit, he's way lighter than I thought he'd be!' Naruto thought as he steadied himself. He gazed down at the other's pale and, despite everything, still sleeping face, and couldn't contain a small laugh escaping, even though he didn't find anything about what had just happened remotely amusing. A light, warm breeze suddenly rushed through the drooping branches of the oak tree they were under, sweeping upwards from underneath them both and up, ruffling their hair. Naruto noticed a strange scent on the air, something strange, something foreign, something unlike anything he'd ever smelt before – he wrinkled his nose and looked around before he realised that it was Sasuke he was smelling, causing him to wobble slightly as he felt suddenly quite light-headed.
Just as he was about to set the boy down, Naruto jarred as he saw Sasuke's eyes opening slowly – 'shit, what's he gonna think?!' Naruto looked around desperately, panicking over what to do, before he looked back down at the boy's face to see a pair of black eyes staring, completely bewildered at him.
"Erm…" Naruto began nervously, his palms growing sweaty.
"Put me down," Sasuke ordered calmly, Naruto only to happy to comply as he promptly dropped Sasuke from his arms, causing the smaller boy to land sprawled on the ground. Naruto immediately reached down to help him up, only for his hand to be swatted away by the clearly pissed off Uchiha.
"Nice one," he growled, getting to his feet before brushing the dirt off his clothes with his hands. "Why were you holding me?" he asked curtly, and although this sounded like a question Naruto could trace no curiosity in the other boy's voice – in spite of this, and willing himself manically to calm down, Naruto blushed slightly as he looked Sasuke in the face to answer.
"Uh, well… you kind of like, fell out of the tree. And I caught you," the blonde explained, wondering why he hadn't placed Sasuke down straight after he'd caught him, and why he'd stopped to smell him? 'If I didn't know better, I'd say you had a crush on him' – Sakura's words echoed completely unwelcome in his ears. Naruto looked down and fiddled with the waistband of his trousers, wishing Sasuke would say something into the silence that had followed his last statement.
"Oh. Don't we have a lesson?" eventually permeated the thick atmosphere, as Sasuke turned and walked out of the shade of the oak tree towards the main building. Naruto, slightly confused but altogether thankful at the cessation of the awkward moment, jogged until he was walking alongside Sasuke. "I won't tell if you won't," the dark-haired boy spoke as he felt Naruto's presence to his left, Naruto turning to look at him – he was… smiling? Well, in truth it was more of a smirk, but it nonetheless put Naruto at ease as he laughed, though restrained himself from smacking the other boy playfully on the shoulder.
"Sure thing," he replied as he guided Sasuke towards the sport's building for their Physical Education lesson.
How nasty is Naruto? Haha, I have such a habit of making my main characters too similar to myself, and to be frank, I suck. I was also going to include the Phys. Ed. lesson but thought that the chapter might get a bit long – it's actually the longest chapter I've ever written in any story.
I'll reply to all reviews this time via private message, because I feel really rude for not replying for the one's I got for Chap. 1. Constructive criticism is really, really sexy. As is telling me what you liked/disliked about whatever part of the story, so I know what to include less and more of.
Till next time lovelies! C:
