SMILE
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone in Naruto, or any element of the anime/manga. But I do own this plot, although it seems to be going nowhere.
Warnings: NaruSasu, yaoi/shounen-ai, strong language, SasUke, ShoppingAddiction!Gaara, more underage drinking, Itachi-ness, etc.
Review dammit!
CHAPTER THREE: SUDDEN IDEAS
Sakura strolled through the mall with the rest of her friends, she and Naruto leading the pack. She latched herself onto his arm and gripped him rather possessively. The only one who seemed to notice how much she had been doing that for the past two weeks was Ino. The blonde guessed that her pink-haired friend was just being paranoid and overprotective of Naruto, as she always was whenever a new person or someone she did not like came along, such as the emo kid with an attitude, Sasuke. Naruto did not notice how much more his girlfriend had been snuggling up to him for the past two weeks, and he really appreciated her latching on to him and all, but he did notice how tightly she was gripping his arm when he started to lose feeling in it. He smiled sheepishly, brushed his long bangs from his eyes with his free hand, and touched Sakura's hand gently.
"Hey? Sakura? Can you um...loosen your grip a bit? I really can't feel my arm..." He said to her, and she cringed when Ino started laughing. Neji smirked and Gaara raised his eyebrows, but that was the most anyone would get out of them. Sakura wished that he would have whispered for once, but Naruto's voice was always too loud and everyone immediately heard him.
"S-Sure…" She said. Sakura decided to let go of his tanned arm entirely and left her hands to hang nervously at her sides. Ino, Neji, and Gaara sped up to meet Naruto and Sakura's pace and strolled along with them, chatting together about anything and everything. Ino was talking to Sakura about something that had happened during a class yesterday when they passed by a store with the newest Marc Jacob's sitting nicely on display near the windows. Ino gasped and tugged on Sakura's arm, dragging her to come along.
"Sakura, look at those shoes! Come on, we've got to go see them!" Ino shouted and ripped her friend from Naruto's side. Sakura tried to fight it and looked back only to see that Naruto was still talking with his friends. He had not noticed that she had left his side, which bothered her. She admitted that she felt somewhat neglected lately, but she could not expect much. Naruto was caring, funny, sweet, handsome, and surprisingly charming at times, but that did not change the fact that most of the time, he was a complete idiot.
"Ino! Don't drag me…" Sakura ordered, trying to release her arm from her friend's grasp. She was not really in the mood to look at shoes, and she was sure that Ino already had over fifty pairs, but that would not stop her from buying anymore. Ino yanked Sakura to her side and jumped up in a quick wave to the rest of their friends.
"We'll be back later guys! Me and Sakura are just going to go check out some shoes." She waved once more and they hurried off. Naruto turned around and blinked; he had not noticed that his girlfriend had left his side. Neji rolled his eyes at how excited girls became over trivial matters such as shoes, especially when they did not need any and just threw all their money out the window by doing so. Gaara glanced in their direction and blinked slowly, watching as Ino ran off to try on some super-tight pair of jeans she had found with Sakura lagging behind, annoyed. Naruto snickered, turned his gaze back to Gaara and Neji, and they continued to walk together. They passed a dark-looking store and Gaara's pale green eye's quickly darted to the side, eyeing it. Naruto had not caught this because he was spacing out, which Neji noticed he had been doing frequently as of late.
"Don't tell me you're getting into that look," Neji smirked, catching his red-headed friend off guard. He grunted, crossed his arms, and continued to walk as if Neji had said nothing. It was not like Gaara could not pull of the look; with his attitude and red hair it would go perfectly with him, but people like them were supposed to walk past such a place like it did not exist. Neji still wore his grin, and Gaara did not bother to give him a second glance, so he grumpily averted his gaze. Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair, knowing where this was going. Really, he would not mind going into that store, and he knew that Neji would not mind either, but he just liked being like that.
"Why don't we go take a look? Are you coming, Gaara?" Neji said and attempted to hide smirk that was persistently trying to appear on his lips. Gaara glared daggers, glided past Neji and Naruto, and walked straight into the store, daring them to follow him with his eyes. Naruto shrugged, skipped right in, and started to check out some black pants. He stared at them for a bit, inspecting them to make sure that they were wearable, then decided to hell with it, and headed to the register to buy the pants.
He put the black pants on the counter and the girl working the register gave him a weird look. He was wearing orange, had perky, blue eyes, a carefree smile, sunny blond hair, a tan, and not to mention muscles. Naruto did not like it when she gave him that what-the-hell-are-you-doing-here look, because he obviously did not belong here. He just quickly handed her his money, took the pants to escape her ominous gaze, and decided his best bet was to find Neji and Gaara somewhere in the store to hide his orangeness from the people who were staring at him like he was from another planet. He swung his bag around his finger and strolled past some shirts, searching the store for his friends. Unlike him, they dressed primarily in muted colors and seemed to blend in quite easily. He finally found them near the accessories.
Neji noticed that Naruto was coming towards the right side of him and eyed the draw-string shopping bag. He was a little surprised that Naruto would buy something in here, since he was not into the look like Gaara. Neji admitted to himself that he was indeed curious to what was inside the bag.
"Hey Naruto. What did you buy?" He asked, his curiosity not showing through his voice. Neji casually looked at a necklace. Naruto looked at him for a second, and then realized what he was asking, pulled the blank pants out of the bag, and displayed them to his friend.
"Just these pants. I like the pockets and the chain is pretty cool." Naruto tossed them back into his bag. He had finished his sentence, but Neji realized there was something else Naruto needed to say, since he was rather perceptive. His cerulean eyes darted from side to side, revealing that he was quite aware that people were staring at him again. Naruto shifted a bit on his feet and felt a little more than uncomfortable. "Can we please leave now? I stick out like a big orange sore thumb."
Neji chuckled lightly and nodded in response.
"Sure, I just need to find Gaara." Naruto nodded in response.
They agreed to meet outside the store once Neji had acquired Gaara and he walked outside as quickly as he could. He sighed and plopped down on a bench that was leaning against the half wall of the second level of the Konoha Mall. Naruto tried to wait as patiently as he could for Neji to appear, but he knew he had little patience, if he had any at all, and he was becoming exasperated. He wondered what was taking so long. It was not like Neji had to drag Gaara away from the store.
Naruto waited a few more minutes before deciding that he did not like being left alone for long (in his point of view) periods of time. He stood up and laxly dragged himself back into the store, trying to find Neji and Gaara who seemed to blend in with the color scheme. He finally thought that he saw Neji, ran up to the person with long, brown hair, and tapped their shoulder. The person turned around and glared at him fiercely. As she walked away the bell choker around her neck jingled. Okay, that was not Neji. Naruto wandered to the back of the store and found Neji sitting on a bench, looking bored. Naruto stormed towards him, his annoyance evident.
"Neji? What the hell are you doing! I thought you said you were going to get Gaara! Where is the little bastard, anyway? I mean, I didn't expect to find you lying around like some lazy-ass on a bench. If you wanted to do that, there was one right outside the store where I was. Why'd you keep me waiting?" Naruto asked, gesticulating angrily as he spoke, his unkempt blond hair moving as he did. Neji sighed, smirked, and waited for Naruto to finish his rant and calm down, because it would be pointless to try to speak over Naruto's boisterous and nearly obnoxious voice. He would just be wasting his breath. Naruto pouted, sat down next to Neji on the bench, and tossed his bag onto the spot next to him. Neji decided now was the time to start talking.
"I'm waiting for Gaara. Apparently, he found many things that he likes in this store and locked himself up in one of the dressing rooms over there." He paused and pointed to the stalls in a separate room that was near to them. "And he refuses to come out until he's done, and you know if I say anything otherwise that sounds offensive towards his decision, he'll get in one of those moods and whip my ass," he stated blatantly. Naruto blinked and he heard a curse come from one of the stalls among other not-so-nice things. He assumed that was the stall in which Gaara had locked himself up. Naruto laughed lightly at his friend's response to Neji's words, which he had clearly intended for Gaara to hear.
"I never thought I'd see him like this," Naruto mused. "It's almost like he's a girl getting overexcited about shopping. Maybe Ino is starting to rub off on him." He laughed and Neji rolled his eyes, but chuckled nonetheless. They both heard a grunt and a stomp come from the stalls, and Gaara swung the door open fiercely and stepped towards his friends quietly.
"I heard that," he muttered darkly, carrying an arm full of clothing. Naruto was surprised and gaped at all the clothes that he held. Neji had not over-exaggerated, which was not to say that he ever did, but it was somewhat odd, to say the least. Naruto quickly got over it, smiled innocently, and blinked his sparkling blue eyes at Gaara in attempt to be spared. The redhead merely glanced at him, and then sauntered over to the register, followed by Neji.
"Good, because I intended for you to hear that," Naruto said to himself and trotted along behind his friends, receiving yet another look from the girl at the register, whose angry stare was still telling him to beat it. Gaara tossed a few hundred dollar bills at her carelessly and began to leave the store. On the way out, Naruto childishly stuck out his tongue at the girl when she was not paying attention. But the girl who he had mistaken to be Neji earlier saw it, stared at him, and uttered the word 'freak' under her breath.
Naruto watched as Neji and Gaara exited the store and he returned his attention to getting out of this place. He was about to leave when he saw a black shirt that, oddly enough, looked just like Sasuke's, except without the weird symbol (that resembled a lollipop) sewn onto one sleeve. He stopped and walked up to the shirt, inspecting it, and thinking of Sasuke. He had not seen him in about two weeks, except for when he encountered him on campus. The bastard would not even glare at Naruto and would ignore him as he walked on. It was like they had never met, which bothered Naruto. He was trying to be friendly, damnit. He actually liked Sasuke and wanted to hang out with him sometime. He had even told Sasuke that, but that ended with him getting kicked out. But being the ever so determined blond that he is, Naruto was not about to give up anytime soon. His eyes skimmed over some more clothing and he figured this was the kind of place that Sasuke would shop, and maybe getting him something would make him like Naruto more. Naruto yanked some things that he thought Sasuke might like off of a rack and started to look at them, not noticing that Gaara and Neji were waiting for him outside, and a certain redhead was starting grow impatient.
"What are you doing?" He heard Gaara's calm voice ask.
Naruto looked at him for a moment, wondering what the problem was. Maybe he was mad because he could have stayed longer and bought more clothes. Even if they were friends and somewhat alike, Gaara was hard to interpret and understand at times. Naruto still had not answered Gaara. The redhead did not budge, eyeing him and keeping his arms loosely crossed across his chest.
"Oh, I'm just looking for something that that bastard Sasuke might like. He doesn't seem to be warming up to me, so maybe if I got him something nice he'll like me better. Don't you think so?" Naruto smiled, carefree and innocent. He began to browse through the racks again and he heard the shuffling of feet behind him, followed by an aggravated grunt, but Gaara did not say anything. Naruto mumbled and continued to look around. Gaara must have really wanted to shop some more.
"Reasonable enough, but shouldn't you leave him alone?" Naruto jumped, startled, and twisted to face Neji. He sighed and calmed down, wondering how it was possible for Neji to move so quickly and silently. A few seconds ago he had stood outside of the store.
"Don't do that…" Naruto muttered and ran a hand through his hair. He exhaled, continued to look through the clothes, and when he looked to where Gaara had been standing, he was no longer there. Naruto had not heard him go anywhere either, so he just assumed that Gaara became annoyed (It was not like it would be apparent in his expression, since it varied from calm, 'I don't care', emotionless stare, or the 'this-is-boring-so-I'm-going-to-kill-you-for-fun' stare) and left the store to wander around until he found something to occupy himself with, or until Ino ambushed him spontaneously from a store.
"You should just leave him alone, you know. He has his own things to do, and if you do give him a gift you'll just be wasting your money, since Sasuke will probably put it in his paper shredder," Neji advised in superior tone, since he was more experienced in dealing with the subject of Sasuke. He crossed his arms and leaned on one leg, waiting for Naruto to give up. Naruto glared at his friend from the corner of his eye and grunted with exasperation, then pulled himself away from the item he was looking at and walked away without putting up much of a fight. He was not in the mood to be a hardass today. Neji scoffed and trailed after Naruto until they exited the store. They searched the mall together, looking for their three other friends.
They walked all over the Konoha Mall, checking every girly fashion store in sight for Sakura and Ino. Naruto did not know why they had bothered to make the mall so large, but he guessed it was because so many wealthy people lived in the secluded Californian City. Neji was becoming annoyed, but nonetheless he remained calm and continued to search. In contrast, Naruto was on the verge of exploding with impatience. He came to the conclusion that friends should not split up in such a large place. Neji came to a halt in front of Versace and looked around for a moment. Naruto rushed to catch up with his friend, and looked around as well, since he knew that Neji had a talent for sensing the presence of other people.
Neji took a deep breath before revealing his conclusion. "I have no idea where they are. We checked every expensive fashion store in this mall, and it's unlike them to leave without us," Neji said, resting his hand on his chin thoughtfully. He closed his eyes whilst Naruto sighed loudly and sagged over, exasperated and disappointed.
"You're usually so good at finding people, Nej. We went through all that and ran all over this place and you can't find them? And what about Gaara? I mean…why are we looking for the girls and not him…?" He searched the area around him, determined to keep on looking for them. Neji turned around, looked at his friend briefly, and sighed. Naruto did have his moments, but he still was not the sharpest orange crayon in the box.
"Simple. For one, Ino and Sakura are females. If you leave them unsupervised in the mall, they'll be here until they're forced out when all the stores close, or in other words, they will literally shop until they drop. Gaara, I don't think we have to worry about…" He trailed off, mumbling something incoherently Naruto did not bother to catch. Naruto spun the string of his bag around his finger, swinging his bag nearly over his head with effortless movements.
"Unless with his new-found womanhood he decides to shop till he drops, even if that'd be kinda weird…weird even for Gaara," Naruto commented, using his foxy grin for the first time today. He had been feeling somewhat off lately and was not as often in the mood to use it anymore.
Neji snickered lightly and warmly grinned at his friend. He opened his mouth to suggest that they should be going to other stores to look for Ino and Sakura when he heard a familiar happy and high-pitched squeal come from inside of Versace. Naruto stared at the entrance questioningly, and then smiled when he realized to whom the squeal belonged.
"Naruto-kun and Neji-san! 'Sup?" Ino exclaimed in her usual cheery voice, emerging from the inside of Versace, carrying several bags from a number of stores. She greeted each of them with a peck on the cheek. Naruto laughed at his friend and Neji wiped his cheek, seeming disgusted. It did not last though; his serious expression faltered and the corners of his lips turned upwards in a reserved smile. Ino threw her arms around them and dragged them together.
"Hey, Ino," Neji greeted.
"Yeah, hi and all, but what's with the honorifics, huh? Since when have you bothered to learn anything about your background? And why'd you call Neji 'san' and me just 'kun'?" Naruto put on a pout but it was obvious that his eyes were smiling. Ino smiled at him mischievously and directed her full attention at Naruto, and Neji was finally able to break free from her hold, much to his relief. He stood a safe distance away, watching with a raised eyebrow.
"What, are you jealous, Naruto-kun?" She giggled and flicked her long, silky ponytail. Naruto grinned and started to laugh, and Neji smirked.
"Ino, you pig! Stop flirting with my boyfriend!" Naruto turned his head to see his pink-haired girlfriend fuming and shooting death glares towards her best friend. Naruto sighed in fake-annoyance as Sakura growled and pulled Ino away from him. Ino just stuck out her tongue and skipped off, swinging her innumerable amount of shopping bags. His girlfriend then latched onto his arm possessively and hugged him tightly. Naruto smiled and rolled his eyes.
"Hey, Sakura." He paused and leaned down so he could place a kiss on her pink lips, and she gladly returned it. "Why don't you have a massive amount of shopping bags stuffed around your arms like Ino does?"
"Ino," Sakura scoffed, making a face at her friend when she was not looking. Ino was preoccupied with ranting on about something trivial to Neji, who was throwing them a 'save me please' look. The couple laughed and Sakura continued. "That pig. Unlike her, I try not to spend so much money," she stated haughtily. "And I already have enough clothes that I'm running out of space in my damn closet." Sakura added in a voice more muted than her usual one, almost bashfully, but looked up at Naruto and smiled at him warmly.
"That's new. You usually spend like there's no tomorrow. Neji did mention something about you two shopping 'till ya dropped," Naruto said cheerfully and smiled brightly, expecting his girlfriend to become angry and go on a rampage. She growled, released his arm, and made an attempt to whack him over the head as she always did, but he expertly dodged out of her reach and walked ahead.
"What do you know? I'm free now!" Naruto announced and grinned like an idiot. Sakura crossed her arms, huffed, and then firmly placed her hands on her hips. She gave him the angry 'you're-gonna-get-it-later' look that only overly-possessive girlfriends could pull off.
Naruto and his friends walked towards the exit of the mall, looking around for Gaara before they got impatient enough to leave without him. Naruto did not think that was particularly nice, but he did not have much of a patience either and was not one that was up for waiting all day. He yawned lazily and pushed his floppy bangs out of his face, and to his dismay they fell back over his eyes again. Besides, Naruto had things to do. Namely, bother Sasuke Uchiha to death, or preferably until he opened his dorm's door, so that they could just sit and talk, in a friendly, non-threatening manner.
Naruto groaned, sat on his desk, and buried his head into his arms. He had a bad case of the Mondays today. He did not even know why he had decided to take a class so early in the morning, especially on his least favorite day of the week, but he did not have much of a choice. He could not take classes in the evening because that was when he and his friends usually went out and spent the night in the more urban part of town. They typically ended up staying out late at a club, and then headed to some random person's estate for the after party. It was not exactly helping his grades, and he hardly had time to study, because that got in the way of partying and surfing. That only made his case of the Mondays even worse. He groaned and wanted to leave this class, so he just yawned, put his head down, and began to nod off.
Professor Hatake did not seem to notice, since it was one of those 'study sessions' that he held in the class. In other words, he allowed people to do whatever they wanted (though the smarter portion of the class actually did study) while he sat there with a slight blush on his face, reading his strange, little, orange books. At the beginning of the semester, curiosity had gotten the best of Naruto, and he ended up taking a quick peek at his professor's books, which left him mentally disturbed whenever he was around his porn-reading professor for two weeks. Not to mention rumors started flying around that Professor Hatake would get fired just like the college's old child-molesting, (even thought they were legal adults) Michael Jackson look-alike professor.
Professor Hatake must have been engrossed in his book since Naruto sat in the front of the class, still trying to get over his Mondays with a quick nap. He still did not notice anything. Naruto rested his head on his clean desk (formerly belonging to the kid who had gotten hit with the meter stick), and he was happy to have a non-destroyed one, even if he kind of missed reading all the interesting things on his old one when he was bored. People all around him were chatting with no concern over the level of their voices (not like he ever had concern on the volume of his own voice either), some students started having a paper-airplane and pencil tossing contest across the class, and numerous other objects were flying over his head. It was an odd sight to be seen in college freshman classroom, but they had than enough time to get their work done in class since Professor Hatake did not lecture much.
As Naruto finally gave up on sleeping, he wondered where he would end up sitting when that kid came back from the hospital or wherever he went, since he apparently got a minor concussion from hitting a piece of metal from the desk, fractured his wrist, and his sources claimed that he had switched out of this class because of that. Although, as long as Naruto had a desk that was not crappy, he was satisfied.
Professor Hatake finally glanced up from his book and dismissed the class after taking a quick glance at the clock, then stuck his nose back into his book immediately after. Usually Naruto would try to get a hold of Sasuke, since they shared this class together, and the Uchiha would basically sprint out of the room. That did not happen today, though, since the Monday's were still taking a drastic effect on Naruto. Naruto rubbed his eyes sleepily and began to proceed with the rest of his day, which included meeting up with his friends for two hours, attending another class, and then hitting the beach later. He was halfway out the door and still in a daze when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and stared grumpily at the person who dared to bug him on a Monday.
"Yo!" Professor Hatake greeted in his usual cheery tone and he made his usual happy-eye curves. Naruto grunted at his gray-haired professor in recognition, but his teacher got the message he was trying to send through mumbles, nonetheless.
"Naruto, I was wondering if you could stay after class a bit with me. We need to talk about something very important," he said sternly and released the grip on his shoulder, then dragged himself to his chair. The college professor sat down and spun around in a circle in his chair, then neatly folded his arms on his desk. Naruto walked back to the front of the class in a very similar manner, except without the chair-spinning or arm-folding, and collapsed into a desk and yawned, waiting to hear what was so important. Professor Hatake rocked back and forth in his chair and looked Naruto straight in the eyes to make sure that he was paying attention.
"Listen, Naruto, I don't really like to be the one to tell you this, and it isn't even really part of my job description to baby you, since you're not in high school anymore. But I don't want you to fail this class. Your final grade is composed of only a few tests and essays, and though this class is curved, based on your results of your first test, you aren't doing well. At all."
Naruto nodded sleepily and his head started titling to one side. His head started to hurt, and he wondered if he still had a hangover from last night. He was not paying attention to what his teacher was saying and was in the middle of spacing out, so he decided that nodding along and going with it would be the best choice until he could get out of there. Professor Hatake had said it was important, and he knew he should be listening, but then again, the guy held importance in things such as attaining the latest book in the perverted series, Icha Icha Paradise.
The college professor sighed, took out his meter stick, and slapped it against Naruto's desk. He woke up in a jolt, looking at him with alarmed eyes. He then calmed down a bit, realizing what was going on. Naruto's eyes narrowed, becoming slightly angry. "What?" He growled and crossed his arms.
"Pay attention, Naruto. You're failing miserably and even you can see that isn't good. I know you're not stupid, and if you just try a little harder and lay off the partying, you can probably pass, since it's still early in the semester," the professor said. Naruto stared at him, somewhat surprised. He had not thought that he was doing that bad. He never did particularly well in school, nor was he the brightest child, but he was certainly not a complete dumbass. He groaned and slunk down in his chair, trying to convince himself that he was not doing so horribly, and that it would be easy to pass. He would just need to try harder, but that did not mean he had to stop partying.
"Okay, okay. I promise I'll try harder, Professor Hatake, because really, I'm not stupid or anything." Naruto stood, waltzed out of the room, and sighed, finally happy to be out of there. Professor Hatake looked after him with uncertainty, unable to tell whether the boy was serious about this or not. It was always hard to tell with Naruto, even if he had calmed down and matured a bit since the first time they had met.
"Wait, Naruto," he called and Naruto stopped, looking annoyed. He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.
"Yes, Professor Hatake?" Naruto asked with heavy sarcasm. The professor sighed and gave him a skeptical look, indicating that he was not in the mood for any wiseacre cracks at the moment. He too wanted to be somewhere else doing something else, such as going home or to a coffee shop to read Icha Icha Paradise; but this was necessary and he would feel guilty if he watched his student fail without attempting to aide him.
"Are you really serious about this?" He asked in a voice that allowed no nonsense. Even if he was lazy and a favorite among the professors, he had moments in which he was strict. "Because if you can't study well enough on your own, I suggest that you find someone to help you out."
"You mean a tutor?" Naruto asked, and his voice came out a little whinier than he had intended. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair; that was becoming a habit of his. "Don't underestimate me, Kakashi-sensei. I keep my promises, alright?" Naruto told him, grinning.
Kakashi sighed and his silver hair fell over his face. At least he finally seemed serious and determined. "Fine, fine, now shoo." He gestured towards the door, telling him to scram. Naruto grinned and waved before disappearing into the hall.
Naruto took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled, trying to organize his thoughts. He knew he could do this, he was sure that he could. He knew that he was not that stupid, but he could not remember the last time studying was so difficult. Or the last time he studied, for that matter. It had never felt necessary. He thought that it was good enough just listening to Kakashi ramble on during class, but apparently he had been wrong. It was college, not high school, even if he had only been in it for barely a month. It was apparent that he would need to do this once in a while in order to graduate.
He shuffled the papers in front of him and tried to read all the notes he had taken. Naruto sighed and kept on trying, even though it was getting hard to keep his attention on a dull, boring, piece of paper. His hand writing was not all too neat either, so studying appealed to him even less. He wondered what his motivation was, and he answered himself with 'duh, you need to graduate college so you don't end up a bum on the streets'. But that still did not change the fact that it was boring. He figured a little music would not hurt and that it would perhaps ease his mind, so he turned on his stereo.
Naruto tried to study for about five more minutes. The music was starting to get distracting, and Naruto would tap his foot or hum along with the song that was playing as he became increasingly disinterested in studying, as if he had been interested in it at all to begin with, unfortunately for him. Naruto actually was not so sure if it was unfortunate for himself, though, because he sure as hell did not enjoy learning about something he would never use, but then again, he did not like the idea of being homeless either. He wondered why he turned the music on in the first place, since it was not doing any good, and he probably knew that when he turned it on.
Naruto sighed and decided to leave the studying for later, whenever that may be. He blasted the radio as loud as it could go (since no one really lived in the dorms, Naruto figured who would even care?), flopped onto the bottom bunk of his bed, and stuffed his face into the pillow, his mop of golden hair covering his face. He yawned and laid there for a while longer, listening to the various types of music the stations played, and somehow found himself falling asleep, despite the volume of the music. He had not gotten much sleep last night, though. Naruto yawned again, shifting around, and remembered that Sasuke lived right down the hall. He was probably being disturbed by the blaring music. Naruto smiled and finally fell asleep.
He thought that he had finally gotten rid of him. That…that freak stalker. It was not like he actually stalked him, but when they just happened to see each other he would act friendly and start waving like they were the best of friends. He loathed the moments when they crossed paths on campus, because he did not want to associate himself with him. He did not even deserve a glare, or a glance, or any recognition for that matter. So, he solved his problem by ignoring him, so it would seem like that stalker was waving to no one and that he was just some lunatic. Yes, Sasuke liked the idea of that.
He had figured that he would avoid Naruto for the rest of his time at community college. Sasuke never would have expected that Naruto, the most well-known person on campus, would want to be friends with him. It was just strange. The entire thing concerning the bet had merely surprised him, and after Sasuke had snatched himself a free meal, he assumed that they never would see each other again, thus returning to their respective social classes. He had not expected to be bugged constantly for the last two weeks about becoming friends, either. It was kind of like, thanks, but no thanks. Or just plain no without the thanks.
Both he and Naruto knew that Sasuke was essentially antisocial and asexual, yet somehow that Uzumaki kid expected that Sasuke would want to befriend him.
It was not as if Sasuke was so unsociable that he had never had a friend before, but that was before he had become so withdrawn. He did not mind the company of others once in a while, but he preferred to be alone. To him, nothing was beneficial about having someone follow him and bother him. The person could not help him, nor could they understand him at all. When Sasuke was alone, he could think without anyone bothering him and he could enjoy having his own space. It would be pleasant and peaceful. Though, he had to admit that always being alone was somewhat lonely.
Sasuke was in the midst of a reverie, lying on the bottom bunk of his bed and staring at the space above him, when he heard a distant rumble coming from his left. He stared at the wall beside him for a second and the noise significantly increased in volume. Sasuke covered his ears, got off the bed, and walked out of his room towards the source of the music. His dark eyes narrowed when he recognized that he was standing outside of Naruto's dorm; he knew that this was the source of the obnoxious noise. He really, really did not want to get himself in a mess with that idiot, so he concluded that he would enter, turn off the music, and immediately leave without saying a word.
Sasuke decided that knocking on the door was out of the question, since someone would be unable to hear their own thoughts with music this loud. He smirked when he thought about kicking the door down. It seemed fun and perhaps Naruto would hate him if he did that, therefore diminishing the chance of Naruto wanting to befriend him. Somewhat to his surprise, Sasuke twisted the doorknob and found it unlocked. He walked in, expecting to find a grinning Naruto who was lying lazily on the floor and deliberately trying to annoy him. Instead, he found Naruto dead asleep in the bed. Maybe if Sasuke was lucky, he was dead.
He quickly moved across the room to where the large stereo was located, pressed the button which he hoped controlled the power, and thankfully, the horrid nuisance stopped. He heard shuffling behind him and Sasuke turned around to see Naruto rolling over in his sleep. He hugged his pillow, mumbled some incoherent words, and drool seeped out of his mouth which he had left open. Sasuke stared at scene in front of him with slight distaste, and then headed towards the door.
"Stupid dobe," he murmured under his breath. Sasuke took one quick glance at the sleeping idiot before he left. Naruto had further buried his face into the pillow. He slept silently, which Sasuke had not anticipated, since he figured that Naruto would be obnoxious even in his sleep and snore. But he looked quite the opposite, actually; peaceful, tolerable, and semi-cute with his hair hanging all over his face. Sasuke erased that thought from his mind vehemently until he noticed that the big idiot was beginning to stir. Naruto sat up with a stretch, popped open one blue eye, and sleepily rubbed his other one.
"What happened to the music….?" He asked groggily. He yawned and stretched again, then laxly slugged over and observed his surroundings. He stared at the stereo, then he stared at Sasuke, who seemed frozen in place, silently hoping that Naruto would do like a dobe and go back to sleep. Naruto suddenly became wide-awake and stared at Sasuke with suspicion.
"Sasuke? What the fuck are you doing in my dorm?" He demanded and stood up, glaring at him, annoyed that he had interrupted his nap. He had been having a hell of a dream, too. Sasuke regarded Naruto for a moment before his eyes narrowed into a harsh glare.
"What the fuck are you doing, you dobe? You had the radio blasting and you somehow nodded off to that noise, and I came here to turn it off. Apparently you even need to find a way to be obnoxious while you're sleeping." He crossed his arms and continued his Uchiha Death Glare. He was going to ask how Naruto managed to sleep through that in the first place, but he decided not to mention it. He did not want to appear curious. Naruto returned an equally forceful glare, though it was more irritated than deadly.
"I am so not obnoxious," Naruto insisted. He threw himself back onto the bed, crossed his arms behind his head, and stared at the ceiling before closing his eyes. Sasuke rolled his eyes and made no move to go anywhere. After several seconds, Naruto sat up, glared at him, and made a shooing motion with his hands in the direction of the door.
"Are you going to leave or what? Can't you see I'm studying, you bastard?" Naruto growled and pointed to the papers scattered across the floor, showing Sasuke that he had proof that that was indeed what he was doing. Just not at that very moment.
Sasuke scoffed as if he was incredulous. "What's up with you? Usually you go around being a freak stalker, begging to be my friend, you loser." He raised a thin black eyebrow at him and smirked, waiting to see what the dobe would say in response. Naruto looked at him with anger, dropped down onto the floor, and started to gather his papers.
"I'm not the one who's at the bottom of the social ladder. And like I said, I'm studying," he said firmly. He made several sharp gestures towards the papers that were now on his lap. He glared at Sasuke, and then looked at his papers like he was deeply engrossed in studying. 'Like' indeed, since Naruto was bored as hell with this review-what-you-have-learned crap. So he was pretending, but he did not consider it to be that important. Sasuke was not stupid enough to think that Naruto truly was studying, though.
"I'm not the one who's trying to commit social suicide by trying to befriend someone at the bottom of the ladder, idiot." Sasuke almost chuckled when he saw Naruto's expression in response to what he had said. Almost. Naruto grunted, tossed the papers away from himself, and they fluttered in the air around him before gently descending onto the blue carpet.
"Well, you're oddly talkative today, aren't you?" Naruto said huffily and crossed his arms. He looked away and pouted. Sasuke just stared. He could not grasp how someone who could act so childish was so popular.
"You know what? You just ruined my studying mood," Naruto said, but at least he had an excuse to ditch it for a while. Meaning, maybe a few days.
"That's not studying," Sasuke stated blatantly.
"So, what do you care? It's boring but I need to pass, and you should leave since I'm not in the mood to deal with you and your insulting comments, which don't help at all, by the way," Naruto said. He sighed, feeling somewhat defeated, but nonetheless decided to pick up the papers. He started to read them once more, but his mind was somewhere else and he did not put his heart into it. Sasuke watched him for a few seconds and thought about leaving for a moment, unsure of why he was still there. He did not want to be here in the first place, and Naruto did not want him here either, so he saw no point in staying. His legs did not move and his mouth started to instead. Somehow, seeing Naruto struggle, trying to become better, reminded him of someone he once knew.
"If you want to, I can tutor you." Naruto stopped looking through the papers and gawked at him, surprised that the Sasuke Uchiha was offering him help. It was beyond odd, and not to mention quite random. It did not make any sense to Naruto, but it was not like he cared that much. Sasuke offered, and he needed to pass, no questions asked. He slowly nodded his head without taking his eyes off him.
"Alright. We start now," Sasuke said and took a seat next to Naruto, who happily welcomed his new tutor.
Sakura was having a great time. She and her friends were hanging out together and lying around lazily on Neji's expensive, black, leather couches in his family's mansion. One of the younger butlers came by and handed her another apple martini while she thanked him. She loved how Neji had bribed some of the younger servants here into allowing them to drink freely in the house, without his father's knowledge, of course. Though no one would be discouraged from continuing or would even care if he found out. Sakura laughed at the funny things that Ino said, at the seemingly insulting comments that Gaara made, and at how Neji looked so odd since he was starting to become drunk. They all were becoming drunk. Ino started to sing along with the music that was coming from the Hyuuga's state of the art sound system and dragged Gaara into it.
They all had planned to hang out after class today, but Naruto had never showed up. Sakura was more than disappointed that he did not come, and she was worried, too, but she tried not to let it show. Sakura laughed and acted as if nothing was bothering her, and so far no one seemed to notice. She assumed that they all forgot about how she had been feeling neglected lately, and she was somewhat thankful for that. She chugged down her drink and then ordered a strawberry daiquiri from a servant who was passing by. She decided to drown herself in alcohol and leave her troubles for the morning after her hangover disappeared.
Neji's cell phone rang. He tossed his drink aside and shuffled through the pocket of his pants, feeling around for his phone. Ino continued to bother Gaara, who looked the most sober out of all of them. He tried to get Ino and her endless, drunken flirting away from him. Sakura figured she was the only one who had noticed the cell phone ring over the alcohol consuming and music. Neji picked up the black phone and pressed it to his ear.
"Hello?" Sakura could barely hear what was he was saying, but she was able to read his lips. She finished her daiquiri and paid close attention. Neji nodded and said something that she did not catch, but she was sure that he had said 'Naruto' at the end. The pink-haired girl perked up, walked over to Neji, and sat beside him.
"Was that Naruto?" She asked hopefully. He stuffed the phone in his pocket and nodded, knowing what she really was asking.
"If you're wondering where he is, he claims that he's studying with Sasuke." Neji said it like it was nothing, his tone dismissive. Maybe it was nothing. He leaned back into the leather couch, listened to the music, and sipped his drink. Sakura fell back into the couch, defeated. Naruto was hanging out with that antisocial loser, Sasuke Uchiha. She had no idea why they would be hanging out. It was fairly evident that kid was gorgeous, but no one dared to get close to him in fear of being ripped apart. Plus, Sakura had heard that he was in a mental institute for a few years when he was younger. She knew Naruto was an idiot, but not as much as he used to be, since he had matured over the years. Once more, she asked herself how the hell they could be hanging out.
She dragged herself off of the couch and walked towards the front door, swatting away all of the falsely polite butlers and maids that approached her. Even if Sakura was not one hundred percent, she still could open a goddamn door, no matter how gratuitously huge it was. She walked out the door; she was certain that everyone was too involved in doing their own thing or too heavily intoxicated (Ino) to notice that she had left. After she had reached her destination, a bar, Sakura did not know why she had left. She would do the same thing here that she did at Neji's mansion; drown all her worries with alcohol. She opened the door and the small bell at the top jingled. A man in a dark trench coat stepped out and bumped into her in the process. She just stared at him dizzily.
"Watch it, dude," Sakura murmured, annoyed. He stopped and glanced at the pretty, pink-haired girl in front of him with his dark, calm eyes. Suddenly, they flashed dangerously, but they returned to normal so quickly that Sakura was uncertain if she had seen it at all. He moved out of the way and headed in the opposite direction from which she came. As he passed, she got a glimpse of a pearl-handed pistol neatly positioned in a gun holder attached to his belt. Sakura's eyes widened considerably. She immediately took back what she had said to him earlier.
"Excuse me," he said politely. He walked down the sidewalk and disappeared into the street, using the crosswalk. A car passed and he was gone. That man sent shivers down Sakura's spine. He looked oddly familiar, and she thought perhaps it might be his dark hair. She could not pinpoint it. She dismissed it, stepped into the bar, and gasped. People were stretched across the floor, badly beaten, blood dripping from most of their mouths. Sakura was mortified. She glanced back to where he previously stood and she shivered at the thought of the danger in which she had been. She wondered what type of person would do such a thing, and then she realized that she did not want to know.
Sakura turned away from the scene before her, exited the bar, and began to walk in the direction from which she came, her mind burying what she had just witnessed.
(A/N): For those of you who want me to make their relationship pick up pace and go along quickly, I assure you that that is definitely not happening. This is a slow-moving shounen-ai fic, and something called love is developing. Not lust. Well, not yet…but do not fret, the NaruSaku shall be destroyed within the next two chapters. Be excited. :P (this chapter was really long O.o)
Also, can anyone guess which two characters from Naruto we got the slightest glimpse of in this chapter? Whoever guesses both right gets a cookie! Not like it's that hard to guess or anything…and it's not like I have cookies either…but I can give you imaginary cookies...yeah, that works.
