Detention Date


Sasuke and Naruto are not known for being the closest and civil of friends. Constantly getting into heated arguments over the most trivial of matters, it's no surprise that the pair of them land themselves a detention. Kakashi-sensei takes control of the detention room so what will happen to the disputing pair when Kakashi is suddenly struck by a cunningly simple yet absolutely devious idea.

Ah, my apologies for not updating quickly. I was having a little difficulty overcoming a short spell of writer's block but you'll be glad to hear that for a couple of chapters I've got them pretty much sorted out. I'll just being going over what I've already written and iron out a few little details. As an apology, this chapter is one of my longest and there's a lot of development that takes place.

Warnings and disclaimer are stated in chapter one 'Conspiracy'.


Chapter Nine - Grenades and Collision Theory

Naruto and Sasuke sat beside each other wearing bored expressions as Kiba and Shino had another argument. They looked from side to side as each of the two took turns to yell something at the other. After the first fifteen exchanges both Sasuke and Naruto had forgotten entirely what the two were arguing about. Anyone walking past the two boys would think they were watching a tennis tournament.

"Hey, prick?" Naruto spoke up. Eyes still flitting between Kiba and Shino.

"What?" Sasuke asked him.

"Do they remind you of anyone?" Naruto turned his attention from the two and looked at Sasuke, grinning knowingly. Sasuke glanced at the boy and replied with a smirk of his own.

"I see what you mean," Sasuke chuckled. "How many pointless arguments did we used to have?"

"I usually lost count after the first two minutes of school each day."

The two shook their heads, amused. Naruto watched the two more closely but focused more on Shino. He had still yet to learn what it was that was bothering Shino. "This is bothering me," Naruto sighed.

Kiba and Shino had lost the momentum of the argument and both started to feel a little silly. "Forgive me, Kiba," Shino lowered his head. Then swiftly the quiet boy disappeared. Naruto frowned thoughtfully, watching Shino's back.

"What's with him?" Kiba asked Naruto and Sasuke. "We argued and he disappears all of a sudden."

"If we knew we'd tell you," Naruto shrugged, a little lost.

"I'd better go follow him," Sasuke dismissed himself and walked after Shino.

"Alright, see you later," Naruto called to him.

"Yeah, later," Sasuke glanced back.

"What the hell?" Kiba scratched his neck. "Was it just me or were you and Sasuke, who - may I remind you - is the one person you hate the most in the world, just being friendly towards each other?"

"It was just you," Naruto grinned. "Nah, he's not such a bastard nowadays. Sometimes he still insults me and I still like to annoy him but we're being careful now that Kakashi's got his eye on us and I'm not so willing to get another detention with him."

"Why won't you tell me about the detention?" Kiba whined.

"Because I can't trust you as far as I can throw you," Naruto grumbled. "Besides, I don't want to relive it thank you very much."

"Fine," Kiba pouted.

"We've got a Chemistry lesson to go to in a few minutes. Come on." Naruto stood up and straightened his bag. "You coming with?"

"Alright," Kiba nodded and picked his bag up from the bench Naruto had been sitting on. "I hope Shino doesn't hate me."

"He doesn't," Naruto assured him. "Why else would he apologise like that?"

"You have a point," Kiba conceded. Both boys headed into Kakashi's lab and took their seats. Kiba and Sasuke had swapped places under Kakashi's orders so now Naruto was sat beside Sasuke and Kiba was beside Shino. Naruto sat down in his place and shortly afterwards Sasuke entered the classroom.

"Ah, hello Naruto," Sasuke nodded to him as he took his seat.

"Hey Sasuke?" Naruto turned to him and tilted his head over.

"Yeah?"

"Shino leaving earlier… does that have something to do with what he's hiding from Kiba?"

Sasuke frowned and looked down at the desk. "It does," he admitted, not elaborating any further. Surprisingly though, Naruto knew this was as much as he was going to get and nodded.

"I've got a few ideas and one of them is a little… farfetched but still possible," Naruto murmured. "If Shino is trying this hard to keep it from Kiba then Kiba knowing will impact their friendship. Shino wants to keep Kiba as a friend, correct?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Yes, the conclusion I'm coming to… I'm not sure what to make of it," Naruto mused and fiddled with his pen as they waited for Kakashi to arrive.

Five minutes later the silver-haired teacher sauntered into the classroom. "Sorry I'm late. I was busy talking to my unicycle instructor about stunts."

Naruto pulled a confused face. "Is it just me or are your excuses getting weirder?" The class made noises of agreement.

Kakashi sighed and introduced the lesson. It was about factors affecting the rate of reaction. As they started the work, Naruto was struggling to understand. Seeing the blond's lack of progress, Sasuke tapped the boy's shoulder.

"Which parts are you struggling with?" Sasuke asked him.

Naruto looked to him. "Well, this one. 'Explain how a higher concentration of reactant increases the rate of reaction.' I know the answer but I'd rather understand it."

"Let me try a different way of explaining it then. Okay, let's say I had fifteen or so of you in a room and a grenade. If I threw the grenade, I'm more likely to kill more of you if you're bunched closer together. Right?"

"Ulterior motives much, eh prick?" Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, it makes sense."

"Well, it also works if I had several grenades and if the fifteen of you were still spread out around the room and I threw them in different directions. I'd have more chance of killing all of you then too. When you stick that idea with collision theory that means…"

"That there's more chance of successful collisions because there's more particles there?" Naruto said uncertainly.

"Exactly," Sasuke smirked.

The penny dropped and Naruto wrote down the explanation. "Still, why do you have such weird explanations?"

"So you remember it better," Sasuke shrugged, "And I don't mind the mental images either."

"Thanks a lot, bastard," Naruto stuck his tongue out childishly. Rolling his eyes, Sasuke began explaining the next question.

Meanwhile, Kiba and Shino had been working in silence. Shino put his pen down and Kiba glanced to him for a moment before returning to the question he was working on.

"I'm sorry about the argument before," Shino apologised.

"It's okay, it's my fault too," Kiba waved it off.

"I don't like arguing with you."

"Then let's not in the future, eh?" Kiba smiled at Shino. "You're forgiven because I can't stay angry at you anyway."

Inwardly, Shino smiled.

"Anyway, let's forget that. We're going to be playing football in the park after school, please join us."

"I… don't know, it's been a while since I last played."

"That's no excuse. Come on, please?"

Shino flinched and looked over to Kiba, against better judgement. Damn, not the kicked puppy look. Anything but that! He cursed himself for looking at Kiba. Shino could never say no to the puppy eyes.

"Alright, but I'm useless at it," Shino gave in. "The things I do for you." Kiba grinned and threw his arms around Shino's shoulders.

"Awesome, it's gonna be great," Kiba enthused. "Oh right, I'll be back in a moment."

Kiba stood and headed over to the front desk to get one of the textbooks. Shino glanced up and also stood.

"I get it!" Naruto declared and rushed to his feet. In his haste, he fell backwards over the stool, landing painfully on his back. "Ah bastard!" he swore.

"Naruto and Sasuke, detention," Kakashi spoke up, eyeing the pair of them.

Annoyed but hiding it well, Sasuke raised his hand and waited.

"Yes Sasuke?" Kakashi addressed him.

"If you don't mind, sir, I'd like to explain what just happened because I can prove that neither I nor Naruto are at fault," Sasuke said politely but his tone was still firm.

"After school, both of you can come and see me for a few minutes and I'll see whether that's true or not," Kakashi waved him off.

A few grumbles came from Naruto as he picked himself up and rubbed his back. "Damn that hurt," he groaned. "Sorry about that, Sasuke."

Sasuke glanced to him and shrugged. "It's no big deal. Just get back to work."

Naruto did so and sat back on his stool. He lazily glanced up from the task he and Sasuke were working on after a moment. His eyes settled on Kiba for some unknown reason. Sasuke, noticing Naruto's distraction, also looked up.

Seemingly from nowhere, Shino approached the messy brunette and stood in front of him. It seemed that Kiba barely recognised that Shino was there or actually didn't mind. Shino raised his hand and cupped Kiba's cheek. Their eyes were focused on each others and they didn't seem to have any awareness of their surroundings in whatever world it was the pair were in. Fortunately there was nobody paying them any attention and it seemed to Naruto and Sasuke that they may actually kiss. Shino's lips almost ghosted over Kiba's and their eyes remained locked. As quickly as Shino had appeared, he disappeared again and Kiba acted as if nothing had happened.

"Ha, there's something for Kiba's stupid love triangle theories," Naruto sniggered.

Sasuke frowned and glanced from Kiba to Shino and back again.

"What's up with you?" Naruto asked him.

"That… just doesn't ever happen," Sasuke replied.

Naruto shrugged: "Well it did. I think that there's something going on but Kiba's too oblivious to notice it."

Surprised, Sasuke looked at Naruto. "So you figured it out? Were the other times that obvious?"

"Not this obvious, no," Naruto chuckled. "I can see the hints that Shino is trying to give Kiba but Kiba is completely clueless."

"Won't he realise from that?"

"You don't know Kiba like I do. When it comes to other people, he can sometimes tell when someone is trying to gain the affections of someone else but when it comes to him he's blind. I guess he thinks that nobody would try to get his attention in that way. He'd probably just pass that as Shino being concerned about him."

"So what about you?"

"What about me?" Naruto asked confusedly.

"Could you tell when someone likes another person?" Sasuke elaborated with a sigh.

"Yeah, it's not too hard when you know what to look for. Take Ino and Shikamaru for example," Naruto looked around for the two. They were sat at the other side of the room so he pointed them out to Sasuke.

Ino leant over and tapped Sakura's shoulder, on the stool in front of her. They said had a short exchange of words which made Ino laugh.

"Well, I've noticed that whenever Ino is laughing, Shikamaru looks to her," Naruto explained.

As Sasuke watched, surely enough Shikamaru glanced lazily up at her and he could see a glimmer of a smile in Shikamaru's eyes.

"Whoa, you're right," Sasuke mused.

"Don't be too surprised. I may not be academically brilliant but I know people. Shikamaru clearly likes seeing Ino happy, whether that indicates something more is something that I'm not too sure of but it's just little signs like that. You're as smart as hell but you're oblivious to other people," Naruto chuckled at the last bit. As his laughter died, he picked up the question sheet and looked at the next question. "Oh, I know this one! It's the temperature one you were explaining to me. So it's where the particles have more energy so more of them have enough energy to react and there are more frequent collisions because they're moving faster?"

"You actually remembered?" Sasuke almost laughed before he caught himself.

"Yeah, I guess it kind of stuck," Naruto rubbed the back of his neck embarrassedly.

"I guess Kakashi-sensei was right: you do benefit from being sat next to me."

"Don't think you are special or anything; you just know how to phrase it so I remember it."

"So analogies help you remember?"

"I can't look at something and just remember it. I learn better if I can relate it to something and actually see where the answer comes from."

"Ah, I see," Sasuke nodded. "Well then, I can explain my answers for you if you want. It might help you stay in top set."

"If that's a jab at my intelligence…" Naruto narrowed his eyes. Sasuke raised his palms.

"It wasn't a direct one. How about it?"

"I don't know. It feels as if I'm making a pact with the Devil. Oh wait, I am."

Sasuke glared at him. Mockingly Naruto shivered to illustrate his point.

"I don't have anything to lose, I guess," Naruto shrugged.

"You're not worried that getting smarter will affect you or anything?"

"It's not like I've got a reputation or anything to uphold. If I do then I never cared about it."

The conversation had taken a turn for the darker, Sasuke noticed. He knew that Naruto had a bit of a reputation as being a mischief maker and always smiling but the dark look on Naruto's face was something only he had witnessed apparently. The frown vanished completely before Sasuke's eyes just as Kiba walked over. Kiba looked to Naruto and even Sasuke could notice the flinch that Kiba tried to control.

"Where's Naruto and what have you done with him?" Kiba said jokingly, playing along. "You've not killed each other."

"It turns out that the bastard and I can be quite civil when Kakashi-sensei is constantly watching us," Naruto chuckled. That was when Sasuke noticed the fake quality of the smile had gone leaving a genuine smile in its place, one that reached the eyes. Even Kiba's smile grew wider. "So, what was that with Shino earlier then?" Naruto waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh come off it," Kiba scoffed. "Nothing like that is going on. He must've been concerned or something."

Naruto shared a look with Sasuke. Sasuke smirked at Naruto and looked to Kiba. "We both saw," Naruto grinned from ear to ear. Sasuke just nodded to show that this was true.

"Even if something that ridiculous was true, why aren't you bothered?" Kiba directed the question to Sasuke. Blinking, Sasuke glanced at Naruto before speaking:

"Am I supposed to be bothered? What other people do is of no concern to me," Sasuke shrugged.

"Even so," Kiba pressed.

"Even so, I just don't care enough to be bothered," Sasuke spoke unflinchingly and in a bored tone of voice.

"Shino's your friend."

"And may he continue to be so," Sasuke smirked. "Worried that I'd reject him?"

Kiba didn't know where he stood with Sasuke. "Well would you?"

"No," Sasuke stated. As far as Kiba could tell, Sasuke was being honest. The boy was intelligent and reliable, Kiba could tell and could see why Shino had befriended him. Still, he couldn't help but to think that those dark eyes hid something important from him.

"So, what brings you here?" Naruto asked Kiba, sensing that the conversation had taken a turn for the awkward.

"Oh yeah, are you going to play football with us later in the park after school?" Kiba asked him.

"We've got to explain something to Kakashi after school but I'll join you guys straight afterwards."

"That's great, how long will you be?"

"It won't be too long."

"Great, I'm inviting Shino along. He doesn't really socialise much so maybe it'll be good for him," Kiba chuckled. "Feel free to bring along whoever."

With that Kiba left them and sat back at his table. Sasuke watched Kiba leave.

"Well that was interesting," Naruto chuckled. "It seems that Kiba was getting a little defensive there."

"So what does that mean?"

"Too many things little things. It's hard to pin it down to one thing."


By the way, Sasuke's odd analogies are inspired by my old Chemistry teacher Mr G. He was my favourite teacher and he usually found some way of relating the topic to killing, exploding and decapitating students. It's alright though, I always made him nervous when I had my hands on various chemicals and/or a Bunsen burner. I think it was the manic look of glee on my face that made him swiftly move on to another group. Yes, I'm a pyromaniac. ^____^

Also, the Kiba and Shino scene… you know? That one where they're in very close quarters? Yeah, you probably didn't believe it either. That actually happened between two boys in my sister's class who are - believe it or not - completely straight. I just couldn't pass it up as material for this story.

I hope that does well enough as an apology guys. Thanks for all the reviews - they're great for motivation! Honestly guys, I could just hug you all but there's someone I could glomp. Yes, I am talking to you Miss Ayake-chan. I hope this makes up for the lateness and lack of length in the previous chapter.