Yamashiro Aoba, Deidara, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Sai, and Aburame Shino© Masashi Kishimoto

iPods © Apple

"The Ballad Of Michael Valentine" © The Killers

AU. The adventures of the Naruto gang in high school. SasuNaru, one-sided HinaSaku, more pairings to come.

"spoken" "text" 'thoughts/mouthing'

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"If I could have your attention," Yamashiro-sensei said. "I have an announcement to make. We have a student teacher joining us. Class, this is Deidara-san."

"Hi," the blond said, smiling. "I'm Deidara, un. I'm from Iwa, and go to college in Hoshii, un. I'm getting a degree in sculpture, un."

He picked up the attendance sheet and read off the names. "...Uzumaki Naruto, un?"

"Here."

"Uchiha Sasuke, un?"

"Hn."

"Hey, do you have a brother named Itachi, un?"

"Yeah," he said bitterly.

"I know him, un! He's one of my best friends!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Joy," he muttered under his breath.

Aoba set the students off. Deidara grabbed a lump of clay and began shaping it into a small bird. Naruto leaned over to Sasuke. "That Deidara guy talks kinda funny, huh, Sasuke?"

Sasuke was focused on his painting, trying to ignore the connection to his older brother. "Sure..."

"Teme, are you even listening to me?!"

"No, I'm trying to paint."

Naruto's cheeks puffed up in annoyance. "Teme..."

Sasuke pulled the navy blue iPod and turned up the volume, rocking his head slightly to the beat, and continued to paint, dipping his brush into a puddle of deep blue paint and dragging it across the paper. Naruto looked over from his laptop to watch Sasuke paint. He loved watching Sasuke paint. He was so graceful, the way his arm swept across the scene, the way he held his paintbrush. Said raven currently had his eyes half-closed and was elegantly painting the dark sky, moving his head to the beat of his music. His lips silently formed the lyrics:

'Michael plays with stars, ooooh, Soul Sister, won't you take a ride in his car, late to call, when you wanted to be all...Baby, baby, don't be so shy, Rock children, hold your heads up high, in the night, while I try, and tell the ballad of Valentine...'

Naruto smiled and blushed as the clouds moved outside, exposing the sunlight, diffused through the thick, textured glass of the art room windows, which made the painting Uchiha look almost...like...an...Angel. Yes, that's what he looked like, an angel. He was snapped out of his admiration by the blond student teacher snapping his laptop shut. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be working, un?"

Naruto snapped to attention. "Uhhh, sorry." Looking at his laptop, he realized, "OH, crap! I forgot to save and Deidara-sensei closed my laptop!"

Sasuke, slightly annoyed, paused his iPod and looked over at his blond boyfriend. Nonchalantly, he opened up the laptop, and held up a single finger to calm Naruto until the laptop monitor turned back on, revealing all Naruto's unsaved data just as he had left it. "You're welcome," he said, turning his iPod back on and going back to his landscape painting.

Naruto looked at him, and deciding it was safe, grabbed him in a tight hug. "Thank you, Sasuke, I love you!"

A glob of grayish-white paint fell to the floor. Naruto let go of Sasuke, who began to paint the church spire with the paint that remained on his brush. "'Love you too, koi."

Sai sat in the corner, sketching a squirrel that was sitting on the outside ledge of the window. A couple girls, supposed to be in gym class, stood outside the window, looking at Sasuke and blushing and giggling, and someone was smoking something in the alcove. Somehow, they didn't scare off the squirrel. That, or it was just too into the sunflower seeds Sai kept feeding it to notice them. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke didn't hear him. He continued to paint the stained-glass windows of the church. Naruto poked him. "Sasuke..."

This time, Sasuke looked over. Naruto pouted, and Sasuke paused his iPod. "Yes, Naruto, what is it?"

"Could you watch this video I made and tell me if it's any good?"

Sasuke smiled and took out his earphones, replacing them with the ones attached to Naruto's laptop. Naruto hit the "play" button on the screen, and his video played. When it finished, Naruto looked up at his boyfriend with big eyes. "So, Teme, what did you think?"

"It was amazing, Naruto, but you could use a different transition here," he said, pointing to a spot on the timeline. "Some sort of a fade or something so it flows better."

As Naruto fixed the minor problem, the girls left, and Shino walked past the window, coughing a little. Sasuke began to put his paints away and walked over to clean his brushes. After the class finished cleaning up, the bell rang and everyone left the classroom. Sasuke was met by another group of girls, who instantly grabbed onto him, leaving Naruto to the side, glaring.