Fourth chapter coming and I swear Naruto and Sasuke will be reintroduced in this chapter. When I originally wrote this(back in 8th grade…cough)I wrote it ALL on notebook paper.
That's right. Not a notebook. Notebook paper.(and the pages weren't together. I had to search for them…you don't even want to know.)
Thankfully, I kept everything I've ever written. So what I'm doing with this story is a ridiculous amount of revision. I'm not kidding. In the original version, Kyuubi was going to be a mul. personality of Naruto who had a crush on Gaara. There were many other changes to, but that's the biggest one.
And the ending. Oh god, the ending.
It is completely different now.
Anyways the entire point of this was to explain that I don't know how chapters work out, so as I'm revising it and typing it I'm trying to cut off the ends of chapters where it makes to most sense.
Chocolate Box
--
There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you- Peter De Vries
In Which Iruka Makes an Observation
Iruka was a keen observer and, like most caring fathers, able to predict the exact outcome of certain situations concerning (for all intents and purposes) his child.
So when Naruto returned from Therapy, heaved a sigh, and collapsed on the couch, Iruka knew what happened, who it happened with and how it turned out.
He asked anyway.
"So, how did it go?" Iruka asked even though he knew the gist of what they would each say. For three years, ever since Kyuubi appeared, they had this conversation every Thursday.
It went like so:
Naruto mumbled, "I don't want to talk about it."
Iruka replied, "Okay, that's fine." Even though it was not fine.
Naruto continued, ranting, "It's just that Ebisu's such a little bitch (The first few times Iruka had interrupted, "Naruto, language!" but had eventually given up) and he doesn't like me at all!"
Iruka said, "How do you know he doesn't like you?"
Naruto snarled, "I just do." (And this was a cue for both parties to pause. Naruto knows the answer he has just given is retarded and "Just knowing "isn't a good reason to dislike someone. But that's the only reason he's got, so he goes with it. Iruka smiles gently, but doesn't push.) "Why do I have to see him again?"
Iruka explained, "Naruto, three years ago, when you first told me about Kyuubi, I thought you were making him up. But then I thought 'He's thirteen, why would he make it up?' So I persisted and sure enough, you were seeing something that doesn't exist. With Kyuubi being such a danger to you and your health, I couldn't just let…He is the best therapist in the city."
"Yeah, you keep telling me that."
And cue the conversation's end.
In the aftermath, Naruto would go to his room and do homework, or whatever it was he did, and Iruka would finish dinner or whatever else he needed to do. They would eat together, do their dues and go to bed later that night.
It worked, if perhaps a bit monotonous.
But tonight, it wasn't just Ebisu tonight. Iruka could tell there was something else.
"Hey, Naruto? Is everything all right?"
No.
"Yes."
It's not.
"Everything's fine."
Kyuubi has been…
"Kyuubi hasn't shown up in a couple of weeks now."
…scaring me again…
"And I think Sakura likes me now." Not.
Iruka?
"Everything's fine."
Everything will be fine, right? He had to keep telling himself that.
"Okay." Iruka let out a breath. "You got any homework?"
Naruto shrugged.
"Well, why don't you go check?"
Iruka was always good at reading between the lines. Especially if they were Naruto's lines.
--
Itachi looked at his brother. There was a crease in his brow.
"What's wrong little brother?"
"None of your business, Itachi."
Itachi smiled. An opening.
"Little brother, I worry. Ever since our parents died, you've been…reclusive."
It wasn't a lie. It was true – Sasuke had been more open prior the death of their parents, but not much.
Sasuke was not thinking about that. He never did think much where it was needed, especially when Itachi was involved. His fists clenched, and he got up from the couch.
"Where are you going?"
Through clenched teeth, Sasuke hissed, "Anywhere but here."
Itachi stopped smiling and put on his concerned face. "Sasuke, you go out too often. You're never at home anymore. Can't we go back?" Out of anyone else's mouth, Sasuke knew – he knew – that would have been a plea, a caring question. Out of Itachi's mouth, it was a parody. How dare him. After – after what he did.
Sasuke lost it.
"Don't ever ask me that again! Don't ever pretend we can go back! It can never be the same! Mom and Dad! Dead! And you-! And you-!" For what else could be said about Itachi?
Itachi smiled as the door behind Sasuke slammed.
--
Naruto often took walks after dinner. It wasn't for the exercise. It was not to clear his mind. It was a classic case of teenage-angst.
He just didn't want Iruka asking him questions.
He loved his guardian, as much as he would have loved his father, but there is a time in every teens life, that no matter how close they were to their parents as children, they want to get away.
Naruto walked everywhere. Or rather, Naruto could walk everywhere. Tonight he was walking in Five points. He liked to think he belonged in Five points. Naruto liked the company.
Perhaps the Five points of Konoha was not as grand as elsewhere, but that didn't matter. It had a café, a joint, a book store (incidentally, the same café Sakura had been crying her eyes out at just hours earlier.). There was an arts center. Naruto didn't read, and he couldn't draw to save his life. His voice sounded like a prepubescent cat, and even his music tastes were a little outdated. He wasn't an artist. But that wasn't the point. Five Points of Konoha was a place for Misfits, and Naruto was a Misfit, if nothing else.
Naruto smiled as he walked down the sidewalk.
A little further down, on a bench, sat a fuming Sasuke Uchiha.
Naruto recognized the kid as the one who insulted him this morning. He knows who Sasuke Uchiha is. He just hasn't realized they are the same person.
Knowing that they are wouldn't have stopped Naruto from punching Sasuke in the face right then. In fact, Naruto wouldn't just have punched him. He would have kicked him in the balls too.
He refrained from kicking him, because he was a jerk like Sasuke was.
"What the hell was that?" Sasuke cried as he covered his swelling nose.
"You jerk! You insulted me this morning! When I was trying to apologize for running into you!" Naruto paused. "And threatened to kick my ass!" he added for good measure.
"I don't even know you!"
"My point exactly."
There was an awkward silence between them. Sasuke glared at Naruto. Naruto waited for the epiphany.
Then, "You mean you don't remember?"
"Well, no."
"How? It happened this morning!"
"I'm very busy. "
"So? What, you just go around threatening people on a whim?"
"Not on a whim. You said you ran into me."
"Yes, but I was apologizing."
"Well, I have very bad hearing in the morning, you said it was?"
"Actually, it may have been in the afternoon."
Naruto smiled. This guy was a complete asshole. Perfect friend material.
Naruto had never had a friend. Not a real one, anyways. He had plenty of people who liked him, for being a joker and a 'good guy', but no one he could go to when things turned sour. He called them his 'Sunshine Friends.' He didn't want another 'sunshine friend'. Naruto wanted a real friend. If ever there was a real friend out there, this kid was it.
He extended his hand.
"Naruto Uzumaki."
Sasuke stared at the hand. Naruto had rather large palms and long fingers. Piano-hands, some may have called them. Good-for-nothing, Naruto called them. They sweated at the wrong times ("Hey Sakura, How's it going?" "Naruto! You're hands are gross, get away!"). Had Naruto ever taken up piano , he would have found his fingers rebellious and jumpy, unable to play one key before hitting the next.
They were friendly hands.
Sasuke hesitated.
Naruto wasn't insulted. He had seen that hesitation in himself. Me and him, he thought, we're the same.
Sasuke took it.
"Sasuke Uchiha."
"What?!"
Hands broke contact immediately and all chance of friendship, gone. All was fair in love and war, but it wasn't okay to make friends with the enemy.
"You're Sasuke Uchiha."
Sasuke got the sinking feeling that this was a bad thing.
"Yes…"
Naruto sputtered. This jerk? He had been considering him for a friend.
Fat chance.
"I hate you. I really, really hate you."
Sasuke took it personally.
"What did I do?"
"You even have to ask?"
And with that, Naruto stalked off.
"Wait a minute."
Naruto Uzumaki?
Wasn't that the name of the boy he was supposed to –
Oh shit.
--
When Naruto returned from his walk that night, Iruka was lying on the couch, reading Great Expectations. He could detect Naruto's anger a mile away.
"Is everything all right?"
Naruto turned mid-stomp. He sputtered. Iruka wiped some spittle out of his eye.
"Sasuke Uchiha and I are nothing alike!"
Iruka blinked. "Whatever you say."
--
Sasuke's voice filled the small choir practice room in perfect monotony.
"Repeat after me," Sasuke sighed.
"Je suis, tu es, il est, elle est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont, elles sont."
Naruto raised his hand. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched involuntarily. If he asks one more question, I swear…
"Can you play the song?"
The practice room was a compact room, with adjustable temperatures and light. It had soundproof walls and a piano with a sign on it that read 'Tune me!' Sadly, it had a clear glass door and janitors working just outside that door, methodically mopping the choir room floor, so there would be witnesses in the case that Sasuke banged Naruto's head across the door until he screamed out in pain, then scream again as the blood finally forced the Uchiha to let go of the blond boy, to hear the soft gurgle that escaped Naruto as he passed into the next world.
It was nice to dream sometimes.
They had met at 4:30. Sasuke had been reviewing the conjugation of the verb être with Naruto since then and it was now nearing six. In the afternoon. The only thing the boy seemed to retain was the memory of the song Sasuke had taught Naruto in hopes he would remember the conjugation.
He hadn't.
The song had greatly amused Naruto though (Sasuke suspected it had more to do with the fact that Sasuke was singing it, as since their meeting last week, Naruto was quite bent on making Sasuke's life as miserable as possible. Something, Sasuke admitted, Naruto was getting quite good at), and Naruto had been begging Sasuke to sing it. For the last hour.
"Can you play it?"
"No! Try to remember it without it!"
Naruto pouted. "Just one more time! And I swear I'll remember it!"
Sasuke sighed, exasperated. He hadn't been this frustrated since Kakashi thought he needed counseling, an idea Itachi had quickly put out of his head. No Uchiha was going to counseling on his watch.
"Fine. Now listen…"
Sasuke turned around and played out a simple melody and sang out –
Thank god for the sound proof glass. He did not need people to know he was singing.
--
Sasuke was so sure that glass had been soundproof.
So he was surprised when a boy in his class (Kiba, maybe?) had run up to meet with him before school the day after his tutoring session with Naruto and said to him, "Hey, nice voice, Uchiha!"
Inside the school, it all made sense. Sasuke's voice sounded over the intercom.
Fine, now listen…je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont…
Over and over again, on a loop.
Sasuke was going to kill Naruto.
"Naruto!" he growled, glaring at the boy in question.
"Yes, Sasuke?"
"What the hell is this?"
Naruto smiled. He wished he could smirk, or be more threatening and less creepy, but the smile seemed to have a better effect on Sasuke then a smirk ever would.
"You have such a nice voice."
Naruto didn't think anyone so pale could get so red so quickly. He snickered.
--
Later, Sasuke re-visited the choir room, searching on hands and knees for something he knew he'd find.
"It has to be here somewhere."
Sasuke found a small tape recorder that had been taped under the bench. The button had been pushed to stop, and there was no tape in it.
But there had been.
Sasuke screamed.
The janitors could hear him, even through the soundproof class.
End Chapter
-About Naruto's voice sounding like a prepubescent-cat. Yeah. It totally does in the anime. Don't even try to deny it. But I was talking more about his singing voice, then his speaking voice.
-'a Sunshine friend.' Reference to the 'Sunshine soldiers' Basically it's a soldier or a friend who will stick with you when everything's fine and happy, but will abandon you when it's time to tough it out.
-About Great Expectations. Iruka totally would read a Charles Dickens book like that. And I didn't write that either, thank god.
I rather liked this chapter actually. (and so does the beta )
Review, please.
