Wow, I would love to say that I'm sorry for not updating in such a long time, but I've been having lots of HSC assessments and exams lately (for those not Australian, the HSC is the set of exams at the end of your last year of high school, and the leadup to them is even more intense than the exams themselves). I've been very stressed.
Lucky for me, this was already half-written when I got cracking this morning.
Unfortunately, the untimely loss of my USB has left me without a very important English assessment, along with a rather LONG fanfic I've been writing. So I don't feel that great. APPRECIATE MY EFFORT.
EDIT: I found my USB. Everything is okay. I got some negative reviews regarding this chapter in regards to what happens at the very end, and I am very sorry. I don't live in America and I don't go to co-ed school. Any help would be extremely useful! I know that lots of you go to school in the USA and some feedback regarding life there would be invaluable, seriously!
Anyway, I've replaced the previous document with a revised version. Today, I went and wrote down all the things I want to happen in the story and all the character connections, and when I looked back at it this afternoon, I was actually disappointed with myself for presenting such a piecemeal chapter. Sorry again. Hopefully this one is better. We're getting into the deeper stuff here, and it's extremely exciting for me.
Thanks to the people who brought the fagginess of the previous document to my attention. I changed the last bit, hopefully it's better. I'm much more satisfied with it than the last one. I'm not going to change it again.
Itachi woke Sasuke extremely rudely the next morning, and the younger Uchiha could only hope that the bruising surrounding a spot on the left side of Itachi's jaw was not as noticeable as it appeared to be from close range.
Some could say that, given that it was actually nine o'clock in the morning and Itachi was doing Sasuke a favour by making sure he didn't miss his lift, the young policeman didn't really deserve his crass treatment.
Sasuke knew this, but he was feeling a bit sick to the stomach at the prospect of going to school. He hadn't even consumed any alcohol last night, and, upon entering his house after Suigetsu dropped him off, had been informed by his surprised mother that it was only a shameful eleven thirty.
Thoroughly depressed by his apparent disability to enjoy a night out with friends normally, even though he had been given undue sources of stress and involvement from unexpected locations, he collapsed into bed and practically passed out.
Now he had to deal with Itachi standing over him, looking decidedly more threatening than before his brother had punched him.
"Get up, Sasuke. Mom told me you weren't even the slightest bit drunk when you came in last night, something that she was rather proud of, so you can't pull that excuse."
Sasuke groaned and opened his eyes. He attempted a look of anguish, but Itachi's cold black eyes immediately shot it down, reaching down and yanking Sasuke out from under the covers by his hair, something that the younger man protested against, loudly. He glared at Itachi.
"You should have been up and about ages ago," Itachi snapped. "Suigetsu gets here in half an hour. Go and have a shower."
When Sasuke started to move sluggishly towards the bathroom, Itachi brought his palms together right in front of his brother's nose, creating a god-awful clash of noise that echoed heinously in Sasuke's resigned brain.
"Come on, get a move on! What are you, severely depressed or something?"
"In a manner of speaking," Sasuke muttered.
"Whatever. I have patrol at ten, I have to leave in half an hour and so do you. You better be ready to leave by the time Sui gets here. You two are lucky you have the first two periods off, or you would be ridiculously late."
"Hn," Sasuke grunted, and closed the bathroom door.
Ten minutes later and Sasuke was clean and more awake than before. Sasuke managed to pull on a T-shirt and a pair of black jeans, grabbing socks and his black Converse on the way down the stairs. His backpack was slung over his shoulder, and he was grateful, for once, that he didn't have basketball today because of the extra bag he would have to compile in a hurry.
Sasuke found his brother in the kitchen, eating a piece of toast slathered in honey. He dumped his bag and shoes in the doorway and fetched down the cornflakes box, pouring a hefty amount into a bowl and then drowning it in milk. He poured himself a glass of orange juice, picked up the bowl of cereal, and sat down next to Itachi. He glanced at the clock; quarter past nine.
Sasuke started to shovel his breakfast into his mouth, using the food as an outlet in which he could avoid the meaningful stares that Itachi was awarding him.
"Sasuke."
More cornflakes. He took a sip of orange juice and immediately cringed at the mixed up taste of milk and fruit juice.
"All right, that was just disgusting. Sasuke, look at me," Itachi said, firmly, having polished off his toast in record time and was now wrapping his hands around his cup of tea, staring intently at his little brother.
Sasuke swallowed the awful mixture of food and went to shove more in, but Itachi grabbed his wrist before he reached the cornflakes and made him put the spoon down. The glare that was immediately directed at the elder Uchiha faded as he caught sight of the look on Itachi's face. He was concerned about Sasuke, and that in itself made him feel unbearably guilty.
"What?" Sasuke demanded, but his voice was less accusing, more questioning.
"Is there something wrong? You looked a little bit… troubled earlier."
Sasuke looked down at his half-finished breakfast. He always told Itachi everything, and his brother always understood. They had a very close bond, and this was always obvious to anyone who saw them together.
"Some pretty intense stuff happened at the party last night, and I'd really like to tell you about it, but I only have ten minutes to finish eating and getting dressed and then I have to go to school," Sasuke said in one breath, "so can I tell you when I get home this afternoon? It might take a while."
Itachi nodded. He knew that Sasuke was having a little trouble with his feelings at the moment, and he was prepared to give his brother his space. But, man, it must be a big deal for Sasuke to be this torn up over it.
After finishing his cereal, draining his juice, tugging on his shoes and brushing his teeth very fast, Sasuke stumbled out the door at the exact moment that Suigetsu's car pulled up at the curb. The brunette immediately announced himself as God, even as he climbed into the vehicle next to Suigetsu.
"You wish, you fucking fruit," Suigetsu chuckled. Dressed in black jeans, black Converse and a light blue, button-up, cotton shirt that Sasuke was almost positive he had helped Karin buy, Suigetsu was one of those people who could roll out of bed two minutes before leaving home and still look awesome.
Slipknot was screaming on the radio, and the silver-haired youth quickly turned it down a little bit so he could talk to his best friend. "How are you feeling on this fine morning?"
Sasuke groaned. "I woke up half an hour ago."
Suigetsu hissed through his teeth. "Wow, that puts you as having… oh, a solid nine hours of sleep. Well done. You wanna know what I did last ni-"
"I know who you did last night, Suigetsu," Sasuke growled. Even if he wasn't hungover, he was still not a morning person, and Suigetsu's voice was a little too loud for his liking.
Suigetsu didn't miss the reference. He hmph'd, turning his eyes back to the road.
The Slipknot was getting weird. The singer was screaming so loud, and at a volume too low for Sasuke to hear what he was saying, and all the words were blending together. As Suigetsu turned onto the main road and headed towards school, Sasuke fiddled with the tuning knob, and winced when Kate Ceberano came on.
Suigetsu snickered. "Smooth, Sasuke, real smooth." He reached down, batted Sasuke's hands out of the way, and switched to a station that was playing a Daft Punk remix. Sasuke sighed in relief, sagging back into the car seat and letting the music overtake and uplift his damaged soul.
"Could you please tell your mind to shut the hell up?" Suigetsu interjected. Sasuke stared at him. He couldn't possibly have spoken aloud, right?
"Your angst is sucking the air out of this car, man," Suigetsu explained coolly. "Relax, will you? Naruto is only in a few of your classes, and I'm with you in them, so you can probably successfully ignore him if you really want to."
Sasuke wondered, not for the first time, whether Suigetsu was psychic. Unlikely, but still…
"Shut uuuppppp," Suigetsu groaned, thumping the steering wheel to emphasise.
"What would you like me to think about?" Sasuke snapped. "How the fuck do you know what I'm thinking?"
"I don't know, but the depression is suffocating me! There's this sort of aura, and you scrunch up your face and you frown and it makes me feel tense. You were so happy yesterday, what the fuck happened?!"
Sasuke stared at him owlishly, his face carefully bland.
"Oh, yeah. Forgot."
"Are you still drunk?" Sasuke accused. "You want me to drive?"
Suigetsu shook his head. "I'm fine. Sit your pansy ass down and shut up. Think of something that's not completely depressing, like… puppies. Or… candy canes."
Sasuke snorted at the words coming from his friend's normally-crass mouth. "I'm not going to think about cute and sweet things. I hate sweet things. You know that."
Suigetsu smirked. "Well, at least this conversation doesn't make your face crinkle up like that. It's scary, man."
"Exactly how many times did your skull get cracked on the headboard last night?"
"Too many times to count, bro."
The rest of the short trip to school went on in relative silence, with an occasional joke and resulting snigger from both boys. Sasuke refused to think about the blonde who had occupied his thoughts from the time he left the party last night until he climbed into Suigetsu's car this morning, and instead thought about how much he was going to enjoy tormenting all the hungover people at school.
Pulling into student parking, Suigetsu parked his car and got out, slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder, waited for Sasuke to emerge next to him from the other side of the car, and slung his left arm around the brunette's shoulders, pulling him snugly into his body sideways. Sasuke squirmed, but didn't reject the contact.
"I still maintain that you're bisexual," Sasuke grinned as they walked to the independent study room, in other words, the place where the people who were lucky enough to get the first two periods off school hung out until it was time for class. The small number of their schoolmates paid no attention to them, instead brushing over the duo with bloodshot eyes, not even bothering to pay them a second glance.
Suigetsu hugged his best friend closer, snickering at the fangirl screams that issued from a few girls in the hall. "Oh no, my dear Sasuke, the term for our relationship is described as a 'bromance'."
"God knows there have been worse bromances, Sui."
"Amen."
"Morning, you guys," yawned a sleepy Karin from behind the silver-haired teen, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's waist and hips from behind. Suigetsu placed his hands over hers and rested them comfortably on his belt.
"Hey, Karin," Sasuke murmured, mindful of the girl's zombie-like condition. "Was last night really so exhausting?"
Smack. Karin had reached up and slapped Suigetsu's face with a weak hand. "You told him?!"
"Baby, of course not!" Suigetsu protested. "He just… he just knows. It's crazy. I didn't tell him anything."
Karin pouted before opting to bury her nose in the back of her boyfriend's shirt, attempting to fall asleep right then and there. Sasuke watched, amused, as Suigetsu detached his girl from his back, swiped her up into his arms, and carried her with him to a desk, seating himself in the chair. Once there, he arranged her in his lap, wrapped his arms around her, rested his chin on her shoulder and went still.
Sasuke, still leaning against the wall of the classroom, regarded his two best friends with the kind of tenderness that only stemmed from watching two people who were very obviously in deep like with each other. He wasn't sure if it was love between them, as he wasn't privy to their private conversations, but he was pretty positive that their attachment was close to love.
Now why couldn't he have that? Not with a girl, because as much as he believed that Karin was a very attractive young woman and that Suigetsu was a very lucky guy to have reeled her in, Sasuke just couldn't get attracted to women in general.
"Ssstooooooop," Suigetsu groaned from a few metres away, and Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts immediately. Karin stirred restlessly, asking him a silent question.
"Sasuke's being particularly angsty this morning," Suigetsu explained.
"How the fuck can you tell?" Sasuke demanded, drifting towards the classroom door and possible escape from the madness and the thought-controlling antics.
"I just can… hey, where the fuck do you think you're going?"
"Out."
And he was gone.
Suigetsu moaned and buried his face in Karin's hair.
Sasuke wandered the halls. It was always the least crowded on mornings like these, after ridiculously huge parties.
It was doing this wandering that he happened to witness an extremely awkward moment between the person he was trying to keep from his thoughts and the person who had recently fallen, hard, out of the picture.
Kiba Inuzuka had Sakura pressed against a pair of lockers, but they weren't really doing anything. Kiba's face was turned to the side, looking at something Sasuke couldn't see. Sakura was trying not to look, but she was softly murmuring into Kiba's ear.
Sasuke walked a few more steps, his feet silent on the tiled floor, his shoes not even giving a single squeak, and rounded the next corner, practically concealing himself behind the row of lockers along the wall opposite the one that Sakura and her new beau were leaning against.
Naruto was the next person he saw, standing in the middle of the corridor. He looked significantly surprised, but it was something that Kiba said next that had him gritting his teeth.
The tension in the air was incredible, and Sasuke had made up his mind to get the fuck out of there before all hell broke loose when Sakura suddenly turned her head to the other side and locked eyes with him.
Sasuke's chin came up as he regarded her with what he knew was a stony expression. She merely smirked. Sasuke, unnerved, backed away slightly. With a silent sweep of his jacket against the hard, grubby wall, he turned and walked away.
"Shut your fucking mouth, Inuzuka," Naruto growled, his fists clenching. He made sure not to make eye contact with Sakura.
"Oh sorry, too far? Go complain to your worthless brother, you stupid piece of trash."
Naruto lurched forwards with an outcry of rage, and Sakura quickly got out of the way. The blonde's fist met with the bone of Kiba's jaw, his knuckles marring the tattoos on his cheeks. The brunette grunted at the impact, then took a swing of his own. Naruto bent back and dodged, backing away to a safe distance.
"Don't you dare talk about my brother that way, bitch," Naruto spat, his teeth bared. "Don't forget why you have those marks on your face. We were at war from the moment we first met."
"You'd do well to remember that too, fuckwit. Especially the next time you put a gun to the head of a gang boss."
Naruto snapped. For once, he truly, really lost it. His semi-auto .45 was out of his jacket before Kiba could move a muscle, and the brunette was then pressed to the wall of lockers by the tip of the barrel between his eyes, the early morning sunlight drifting through the windows and catching on the silvery metal.
"You wouldn't," Kiba murmured.
"I could kill you right now, Inuzuka, and I wouldn't feel any remorse for it. Because of you, Pein almost died back then. And I know you're still working for the Madara gang. If you don't want to die before you graduate, I suggest you stop making trouble."
Sakura had watched the entire exchange, and now she was quite terrified. There were no teachers around, and when Naruto was like this, she didn't have a single doubt that Naruto would finish her off as well if she proved to be a distraction.
Naruto replaced his gun in its holster hooked to the inside of his jacket, lowered his hand, and sunk it into Kiba's stomach. The brunette doubled over, gasping, as the blonde pulled away and started off down the corridor. He slowed when he reached Sakura, and muttered, "If you tell anyone about this, you'll have a gang war on your conscience."
Sakura stared after him, shocked by the simple words that only managed to skim the surface of Naruto's past.
Well, I feel pretty good about this chapter. I'm glad I changed the end part. Will you guys let me know if you like it too? I know what's going on now, I kind of lost touch with my own writing but now my muse is back and is constantly kicking me in the head. Good thing it's the last day of term tomorrow.
To everyone, have an awesome Easter! Remember that reviews feed starving fanfiction writers!
xoxo
Sharana