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Chapter 10: New Surroundings
"We can get your stuff another time, right now I want you to go and get some rest." Iruka leads me down a hall and into a room. "This will be your room from now on. You go sleep, I have some things to do so I'll be gone for a little while. I'll be back before dinner though. Do you need anything before I leave?"
"No, thanks. I'll be fine." I smile and sit o the bed still feeling slightly light headed from earlier.
"Alright, then I'll be back."
"Okay." He takes one last look at me before he leaves closing the door. I immediately lay back and close my eyes. For some reason I was extremely tired. It didn't take me long to fall asleep.
XXXXX
Who is that? It kind of looks like ... me. Oh wait, it is me. Why am I looking at myself? Oh wait, Iruka is coming to talk to me. I see myself smirk evilly. That's not a very promising look. Why do I have that look on my face? I reach for something in my back pocket pulling something out. When I pull it out it shines and I look back to me. I see myself mouth 'This is all your fault, Naruto.' he then turns back to Iruka and stabs him in the chest. I look down to see the bloody knife in my own hands. I slowly looked up to see Iruka staring at me with wide eyes. I dropped the knife and tried to grab for him, but he fell backwards off of a cliff plummeting into the darkness below. I fell to my knees and reached out my hand trying to scream, but nothing would come out.
"Nooooo!" It took me a minute to realize I was sitting up screaming on my bed. I was sweating and violently shaking. It's just a dream. It meant nothing. It was just a dream. My breath came in rigged gasps as I tried to calm down. I close my eyes and sit there with my head in my hands.
I look up at the clock to see how long I was asleep. Only a half an hour. I sigh and stand up. I'm going to go take a shower, it might help me calm down. I wander down the hall until I found the bathroom. I go in and shut the door. It was pretty big. Well, it's bigger than my old one anyway. I open the closet and grab a towel setting it on the sink. I go over to the shower and mess with it trying to figure out how to work it. Eventually I got it to a warm temperature so I strip down and step in.
The warm water ran over my body. I close my eyes and put my head under the running stream. After I wash my hair, I stand there for a long time. It was actually calming me down.
By the time I got out of the shower, the bathroom was filled with steam. I grab my towel and dry myself off. I lay the towel around my neck and put on my pants. I grab my shirt and leave the warmth of the bathroom. I throw my shirt in my room and grab the towel. I bring it up on my head and rub my hair until it was semi-dry. I go into the kitchen ad look around. I walk over to the fridge, opening it and grab a bottle of water.
This is my first time ever being at Iruka's house. Well, if I've been here then I don't remember it at all.
All of a sudden I hear the door open and close. Looks like Iruka's back. I walk over to the archway to the living room. I could see him from here. I would have went over, but I was surprised to see someone else with him.
"Kiba?" The both look over looking just as surprised as I am.
"Naruto, what are you doing up?" Iruka questions walking over to the kitchen and dropped off the bags he was holding and Kiba did the same. "And why do you only have pants on?" He continues to talk to me as he puts the groceries away.
"I took a shower. I was hot so I didn't put my shirt back on. If you want I'll go put it on."
"No, it's okay. I was just wondering." He looks back to me looking me in the eyes for a minute before I adverted my stare. "You look really tired. Didn't you sleep at all while I was gone?" I look over to Kiba to see him putting stuff in the fridge.
"Yeah I was asleep for a while. I woke up just recently and took the shower."
"Oh, okay. Say, Naruto." He goes back to what he was doing before. "How does some homemade ramen sound for dinner?" All my previous tiredness left me and I felt myself smile brightly at him. He looks back and smiles. "I take that as an okay?"
"More than okay!" I take a drink of my water and set it on the counter. "Do you think that I could ... uhm ... help make it?"
He looks back surprised, but then smiled. "So you want to learn to cook? Of course you can help." I smile and look to Kiba who was smiling as he shut the fridge. "Why don't you two go and relax for a while. I'll tell you when I'm ready to start making it."
"Alright." Kiba and I walk into the living room and Kiba sits on the couch. "I'll be right back." I run to my room grabbing my shirt and slipping it over my head as I walk back to the living room taking a seat next to Kiba.
"I know you're probably sick of hearing this, but are you okay?"
"I'm good, still pretty shaken by it all, but that's going to happen if you've just seen someone you care about get killed right in front of you."
"You seem pretty chill with it all right now though." He furrows his brows.
"I've had some time to relax. If I think about it I get worked up again, so I'm trying not to think about it."
"Okay, then let's talk about something else."
"Well I actually do have something to tell you." I look away from him. I don't think I would be able to bear the pained look in his eyes when I tell him. "I kind of ... uhm ... kissed Sasuke."
Silence.
Okay, so I was expecting this, but that doesn't make it any less painful or awkward. When another minute passes with the loud silence, I slowly turn my gaze over to my best friend. He was ... smiling?
"Why are you acting as if you did something terribly wrong?"
"W-well ... I thought you'd be upset." I look at him confused.
"Upset? At what? I'm happy for you! You finally got your first kiss! And let's not forget to mention who it was with." He winks and elbows me. "I'm so proud of you. You've done well, my young grasshopper." Well this is all going over strangely well. Why do I feel like he's hiding his true feelings from me just to make me feel better?
Probably because that's what he's actually doing you idiot.
'But why would he put himself through that torture?'
Because he loves you. I don't know how or why, but he does. He just wants you to be happy.
'Loves me? No, he just said that he has a crush on me.'
Honestly. How are you so dense, but I'm so ... not? I mean really, I am you.
'Oh, shut up. I really don't want to have to talk to you right now.
"Naruto?"
"Huh?"
"Finally." He laughs. "You zoned out or something after I asked you a question."
"Question?"
He sighs. "I asked if your little kiss of yours with the Uchiha boy means you're dating now or no?"
That's a good question. "Uh ... actually ... I don't really know."
"How do you not know?"
"I ... I don't know. I just don't know."
"Oh Naruto." He shakes his head in disappointment making the 'tsk' noise.
"What? I'm sorry I'm obviously stupid."
"Stupid, no. You just don't understand relationship things."
"You know what. Enough about me. Tell me about you."
This shocked him a bit. "Me?"
"Yeah you. Tell me about your life, your boyfriend, parents, how's life treating you, tell me about your homework if you have to. Just tell me ... something."
"Okay. I don't know what sparked the sudden interest, but whatever. Uhm ... let's see. Oh! I know, my parents are nagging me about college and what I want to do with my life."
"What do you want to do?"
"I don't know really. Maybe I should become an FBI special agent or something. Sounds fun, right?" He laughs and looks at me. I smile, unsure to why he was laughing. He frowns at me. "Why so serious? I'm only joking ya know."
"That actually isn't a bad idea you know, I don't know why you're laughing."
"Because it's a crazy idea. They are in a lot of danger. Dealing with the worst criminals out there." He furrows his brows and situates himself to face me more. "You don't want to be an FBI special agent, do you?"
"I wasn't thinking about it before, but now that you mention it, it's actually a pretty good idea."
"You're kidding right?"
"No. I want to be able to help get rid of threats. My real parents were killed by an organization and I want to get rid of them. Not only for what they did to me, but what they have done to everyone else and I want to prevent them from doing any further harm." I look over to him and smile. "Don't worry, Kiba. It's just a crazy idea. Gotta keep my options open, ya know. Anyway, what about you and Shino?"
"Oh my gosh. No, nope, no, not happening, nope." He turns away and crosses his arms with a scowl on his face.
"Something ... uhm ... happen?"
"Yes. He's being such a little shit. He won't do anything with me anymore. He won't kiss me, he won't even talk to me sometimes, he won't even touch me, in fact, he goes out of his way so he doesn't have to touch me. I swear is boys had periods, that he'd be on his. Only this has been going on for a month. He is really starting to piss me off."
"What did you do?"
"I have no clue! He won't talk to me, remember!"
"Why don't you give him some space for a little while. Let him cool down with whatever is making him boil over or whatever."
"If I did that then he'd probably get even more angry at me."
I purse my lips to the side and furrow my brows. Wrong subject to bring up. I'm terrible at advice. "Sorry that I can't help you. I shouldn't have brought it up."
"It's not your fault, you wouldn't have known." He sadly smiles at me resting one of his arms on the back of the couch.
"Naruto, Kiba, ready to cook." Iruka stands in the archway smiling with his hands on his hips. We both stand up and I smile.
"Actually, I should go. I have a crap ton of homework and I have to get my room clean before my mom officially kills me." He walks over to the door putting on his shoes.
"Oh, okay. Have fun." Iruka says with a disappointed tone.
"Oh, I will. See you guys tomorrow." He then leaves me and Iruka standing there.
Iruka looks to me. "Okay, let me re-phrase that. Naruto, are you ready to start cooking?"
"Better believe it."
"I go into the kitchen with Iruka and look at all the ingredients. He walks beside me and starts getting some pots out and he puts them all on the stove. He comes back to me and hands me a knife and some stuff to cut up. We go about preparing the ramen and Iruka teaches me how to cut things properly, along with how to cook to noodles and how to tell when they're done. When it was finally done, he put it into two big ramen bowls and got two pairs of chopsticks out setting everything on the table. I sit next to Iruka and pick up my chopsticks as Iruka does the same.
"Itadakimasu." We both dig into our steaming bowls of ramen.
"Thanks for dinner Iruka."
"Thank you for helping with dinner, Naruto. You know, this is so much better than eating alone. I'm really looking forward to having you here."
"I'm glad I get to live here now too."
"You living here just means I'll be able to make sure you do your homework for my class."
"What about all my other classes?"
"I'll help you if you need it, but they have to yell at you for their classes, not me."
"You're not even going to help Kakashi?" I continue to slurp down my ramen.
"Okay, I might help him a little bit." He laughs making me smile. We talk for the rest of the time we ate. We somehow got on the topic of platypuses. I don't even know how, but whatever. When we finished, we both brought our dishes over to the sink and Iruka took mine, washing them both. I started to clean up our mess as he washed the dishes. We eventually ended up switching roles, so I got to wash the dishes and he dried and put them away.
"What are you talking about English is boring?"
"It just is." I shrug and hand him a bowl.
"But that's my class, it should be the best class ever."
"Not to burst your bubble Iruka, but a lot of people don't like it. They all call it their 'napping' period."
"Wha-?! But..." He hangs his head with a displeased aura radiating off of him.
"Sorry." I slightly chuckle and grab the sink's hose rinsing off the soap from the dish. Then an idea popped into my head. I glance to Iruka and smirk.
"Naru-" He stops when I spray him in the face with the hose. He freezes, looks down, wipes off his face, looks back up, and smirks. "Oh it's on." I smirk and attempt to spray him again, but he grabs it and sprays me. I run behind the island and crouch. I crawl around to the corner and peak my head around to see if he was still there. He wasn't. I quickly turn around, but I was a second too late. He grabbed my ankles and pulled me towards him and started tickling me. I couldn't help but almost pee myself from laughter.
I worm myself free from him somehow and run to the living room. I thought I was free, but I thought wrong. Iruka grabbed me, pulling me onto the couch and pulled me tight. I struggled for a minute, but I eventually gave up. I sighed and laid myself back against him. We stay there for a while, neither of us bothering to move.
"I have something that I want to tell you Iruka."
"What is it?"
"I wanted to tell you thank you ... for everything. You were always there for me when I needed you and no one else was. Thank you for always being there, for being my friend, and now for being my family. It means more to me than you could ever imagine, so thank you. I don't know where I'd be without you." I felt his arms wrap tighter around me. "I love you Iruka."
"I love you too, Naruto." I smile warmly and close my eyes.
XXXXX
"So it was you up here yesterday. I thought I saw you." I quickly turn around seeing Sasuke walking over to me.
"Sasuke ... what are you doing here?" He rests his elbows on the fence looking at all the students running around on the field.
"I figured you were going to skip gym again and I wanted to see you." I sit down and Sasuke eventually does too.
"People don't notice me when I'm not in class, they are definitely going to notice that you went missing. Everyone loves you."
"That's where you're wrong. Everyone loves my looks, not me. And I don't really care if people notice that I skip. They'll just miss me for my skills."
I smile and look over to him. "Confident are we?"
"Of course." He smirks and looks me in the eyes. For some reason his black eyes made me feel secure, like nothing bad could happen to me. Sadly I had to break the feeling.
"Sasuke ... what did ... uhm ... why did you ... uh ... last night."
"What about last night?"
"Well ... the uh ... the kiss."
"Oh."
"I-I-I didn't mean to do that. I-I just-"
"Naruto." He stops me and made me look at him. "You weren't the only one who kissed back. I kissed you back too." That's true. I hadn't thought of that. I feel my breathing calm down and I look him in the eyes.
"Then ... what does that make us?"
"Well we have two options. One, we forget all about it and continue to be friends. Or two, we can take it for what it really was and become more than friends." I advert my eyes and look to the concrete ground.
"Well, I don't really want to just be friends."
"Hn. Neither do I."
I look back to him. "Does that mean that we're ... uh ... dating now?"
"Sure does." He smirks making me smile. I actually have a boyfriend. Me. Uzumaki Naruto. Has a boyfriend. Not to mention that it's Uchiha Sasuke. I feel my smile widen. I look up to the rolling clouds.
"I now understand why Shikamaru always came up here to watch the clouds. It's so peaceful." I lay back with my hands behind my head.
"Where is Shikamaru anyway?"
"Home."
"Is he getting home schooled now or something?"
"No, he's moving."
"Where to?"
"I'm not sure, but there are some people named Temari and Kankuro that he knows already."
"He's moving to Suna."
"Suna? How'd you know?"
"Temari and Kankuro are in Suna, unless they moved. I lived there for a week a long time ago. That's where I met Gaara."
"Gaara lived there too?"
"Yeah, Temari and Kankuro are siblings. He was sent here because of his parents."
"So are Temari and Kankuro ... just like Gaara?"
"Not even similar. I'm surprised they're siblings." That was a relief. I'm really worried about Shikamaru. I don't want him to be in the wrong group. Apparently the worry was written all over my face because Sasuke said something. "You don't have to worry about him. Especially if he's friends with Temari. She's someone you just do not want to mess with. Shikamaru is safe, trust me."
"Okay, now I don't want to meet her. She sounds kind of terrifying."
"Don't worry about her. As long as you don't bash on Gaara, you'll be fine. I learned that the hard way."
"What did she do to you?"
"I don't remember. I just remember waking up in the hospital."
I swallow a lump in my throat and sit up. "What if Gaara told her about me and now she hates me and possibly wants to kill me."
"Gaara doesn't write, text, call, or contact them in any way, shape, or form. You're safe."
"Okay, then what about Kankuro?"
"He's an odd one. He always wears purple face paint everyday. I've only seen him without it on once. Besides his weird obsession with his face paint and his puppets he's pretty laid back. You won't have to worry about him much."
"That's a relief."
"Are you planning on visiting him when he gets settled in?"
"Eventually." I lean myself back on the fence next to the raven haired boy.
"Did you hear the announcement this morning?"
"No. I never listen to them."
"There's a homecoming dance this Friday."
"Oh joy."
"Not a fan?"
"Not in the slightest."
"So you wouldn't even go if I asked you to?"
"Well ... I ..."
"It'll be fun, I promise. Remember the last time I said that, it actually was fun." I think about it for a minute and look to him. "Will you go to the dance with me Naruto?"
I sigh in defeat. "Okay, but I have a bad feeling about this."
"It'll be fine, I promise."
I couldn't help but smile at Sasuke's confidence. "I'm sure it will."
XXXXX
"I can't believe you would do that to them." He growled as he pushed me up against the wall to the bathroom. He held me there so I couldn't move as the other two stood behind him.
"That's not even close to what happened." I snap back trying to push the boy off.
"Lying doesn't get you anywhere." He pushed harder on my throat making it hard to breath.
"I'm not ... lying!" I glare at him grabbing and pulling at his hand around my throat.
"I don't believe you. You would blame it on him just to save your own ass!"
"I wouldn't kill my own mother! I was actually starting to like her."
"Would you stop lying. We all know you hated her. Now you went and killed her making your dad suffer for it. How would you like it if we took something precious to you?"
"That's not even close to what happened. But the thing is, all my life I've gotten everything precious to me taken away."
"Well then how about we take something else." He pulled out a knife and slowly brought it to my neck with a nasty smirk. "Your life."
"Taking something so worthless means absolutely nothing."
"You're right. You are worthless. I'd be doing the whole world a favor by getting rid of this trash."
"Maybe you're right. Go ahead. Kill me. It would probably help everything."
"What are you? Suicidal?" He pushes the knife harder against my throat.
"No, but I'm also not denying that me being killed is bad."
"So you aren't just suicidal, you're suicidal and crazy. We have a crazy suicidal idiot standing before us gentlemen. It's no wonder the Uchiha has taken a liking to it. Normally it's differences attract, but in this case it's similars attract. How odd." I narrow my eyes and furrow my brows grabbing his wrist.
"What are you calling Sasuke?"
The boy looks back to me raising an eyebrow and smirking as he looks at my hand. "What? Did I strike a nerve? I'm just calling it how it is. He's only an emo bastard that deserves nothing but hatred and possibly death. People that like him are idiots." All of a sudden he was on his ass holding his cheek. I clench my fist and look down at him with a menacing glare. All three of them were in shock.
"Don't you dare say anything bad about Sasuke in front of me."
"I can't believe you had the gall to actually punch me. What happened to the old you that couldn't do shit?"
"He's gone."
"I see that. That just makes this ten times more fun." He stands up rubbing his cheek one last time before immediately punching me making me fall into the wall. "Come on, I bet even the prick Uchiha could hit better than that."
"You know what. You can tease me, harass me, beat on me, make fun of me, threaten me, but when you do anything, or say anything bad about my friends or family ... that's where you cross the line."
"What? Are you talking about that faggot friend of yours? What's her name? Kiba? She's your friend, right? And lets not forget to mention the asshole Uchiha. The pineapples for brains English teacher and pineapple brain's fuck toy. The one eyed fucker. Oh, almost forgot the nerd. Shikamaru is it? Yeah, I'm promising you that he won't live for too much longer, but don't worry, it'll be a slow and painful death. All because he's your friend."
In less than a second, I was on top of him pounding him in the face. By the time his friends got me off of him, I broke his nose and a soon to be black eye. I also probably knocked a couple of teeth loose. He stood up wiping the blood from his face and punched me in the gut. He tried to do it again, but I jump up and kick him backwards. I then shake the other two off punching one in the face making him hit his head off of a stall and fall to the floor. I turn around to deal with the other one, but he pushed me down and hit me a couple of times before I twisted him, flipping our positions so I could beat his face in.
Suddenly I got tackled off of the other one in mid swing. I got tackled into the garbage can making it fall over on top of is sending paper towels scattering all over the floor. I wrestled around with the one who tackled me until I regained victorious and punched him in the throat. I stood up grabbing him and hitting his face off of the sink. I turn him around and was about to punch him again, but I was grabbed. I go to punch the person behind me, but they catch my fist and pulled me close. My breathing came in shallow gasps. Who..? I turn my head slightly to see raven colored hair. Sasuke? He lets go of me and looks in the eyes.
"I..." I furrow my brows and make sure not to look at his face. "I didn't ... mean for this to happen."
"Naruto it's fine, you obviously had a reason. You didn't even hear me say your name, did you?" I look at him confused and shake my head. "Okay, let's clean up here and get you out of here."
"What happened in here?" A very agitated voice said from the entrance. I turn around to see a teacher with a very displeased look on his face.
"I did this." Sasuke says without hesitation and stood in front of me.
"Uchiha. Why does that not surprise me. You clean this up and come with me."
"Wait Mr. S-" Sasuke covered my mouth and the teacher glared at me.
"What are you doing in here Uzumaki?" Sasuke let go of me, but he gave me a warning glare. I advert my eyes and look at the ground.
"I was actually the one who did all of this."
"... okay, yeah right. Hurry up Uchiha."
Could he not see how beat up I am and how unscathed Sasuke is? "Would you listen to me! I said I did-"
"Naruto. Enough." Sasuke said with venom in his voice.
"Fine, Uzumaki. If you want to take credit for Uchiha then so be it. Come with me. Uchiha, you are still cleaning this up." Sasuke grabbed my wrist, but I walk away with the teacher. I know Sasuke is probably mad at me, but I couldn't let him take the credit for something that he didn't do. The teacher ends up taking me to the principle's office. Yeah, I expected as much. I knock on the door and I hear a faint 'enter', so I do.
"Hey Tsunade! Long time no see!"
"Naruto? Please tell me you're here for something good."
"Uhaha ... well ... you see ... not really."
"Naruto. You were doing so good. What happened?" She sighed and set down her pen.
"These boys in the bathroom. They were bullying me and one pulled a knife on me and held it to my throat. They also insulted and threatened my friends and family, so I punched them."
"Wait, one of them pulled a knife on you?"
"Yeah, they threatened to kill me. They said that they'd be doing the world a favor by killing me and some other things."
"What boys?"
"Uhm ... I don't actually know. I've only seen them once. I do think I know the one who had the knife though. I think it was ... uhm ... Kagura."
"Kagura. Why does that not surprise me. I'll have him come down later, but as much as I don't want to do this, I'm going to have to suspend you for at least one day and I am going to have to tell your parents."
"Just call down Iruka. I live with him now."
"I was informed." She picks up the phone and calls down to Iruka's room. "Iruka. It's about Naruto, he- no wait ... Iruka. Iruka?" She purses her lips to the side and hangs up. "So he's on his way." I slightly smile and shake my head. "Naruto, com over here for a second so I can look at your neck."
"But he didn't cut me." I reach up and feel my neck. There was a warm substance. Okay, so maybe he did. I stand up and go to Tsunade's side. I tilt my head up and she looks at the wound. As she was doing that, Iruka bursts through the door. Well that was fast.
"Naruto! What happened? Are you okay? How-"
"Iruka." Tsunade snaps.
"Sorry." He looks to the floor looking like a little puppy that had just got scolded. She lets go of my chin and I look at her.
"It's not very bad at all. It just scratched the surface of the skin. A little deeper at the one side where you're bleeding. You should be fine though. I still want you to go on down to Shizune and get fixed up though."
"Okay. Want me to go now?"
"Yes. Come back here when you're done." I nod and pass the now freaking out Iruka. He really needs a chill pill. I walk down to the nurses office. When I go inside Shizune looked up and her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
"What happened to you?"
"Long story." I nervously laugh and scratch the back of my head. "Tsunade sent me here so you could help. She probably just wanted to talk to Iruka alone though. I'm not even hurt that bad."
"Well if she sent you down then I should probably at least fix up your neck and your forehead." I look at my reflection in the mirror and see blood. Well shit. How'd that get there? She stands up and takes me to the back. She gets some stuff and brings it over to me. She wets a rag and cleans up my face and throat before she puts some bandages on my forehead and throat. When she finished I spent a while there until Tsunade called down and had me come back. When I get down there, Iruka just walks out of her office.
"Explain everything to me on the way home." He walked past me. He didn't seem angry, but that doesn't mean that he really isn't.