CHAPTER TWELVE

- Art And Girl Talks -

Suigetsu and I walked out of maths with our heads buried in our exercise books. It was Wednesday, and we had just taken a brutal mental test and were being asked to now complete homework on something circumference or pi related. Suigetsu just growled and raised a hand to scratch the back of his head in frustration.

"Screw this. If Kakashi wants to know the average of whatever number that is he can do it himself." He huffed. I nodded, closing my book and stuffing it in my bag, deciding that I could get Keri to do it later. She's the real smarty-pants of the Tenatai household.

"Yeah," I agreed, "I don't have the patience for it either." Suigetsu laughed.

"So why did you walk out of class earlier?" He asked once we'd stopped to wait for Karin and Sasuke's class to finish.

"Oh… some girl called Ami was getting all bitchy with me about Sasuke." I said vaguely, looking through the circular window seeing Sasuke at the back of the room putting his stuff away as the girl I recognised as Ino attempted to converse with him.

"Oh." Suigetsu rolled his eyes, "Ami's just one of those obsessive girls, know what I'm saying? Don't take any notice of her." He thought for a moment, before nodding and smirking to himself.

"What is it?" I asked, immediately suspicious. "What?"

"It's nothing. I was just thinking about how many people are going to hate you now."

"Gee, thanks Sui, real confidence booster there." I laughed a little; turning it into a joke, even though I knew what he'd said was true.

"Don't worry though; you have Karin and me to back you up, Sasuke and Juugo too. Though, they're kind of… well you know, they ignore things."

"Yeah, I know." The door opened and a stream of people who were in top set maths flew by us, Suigetsu latched onto Karin and pulled her to our side. Sasuke followed, of course, at the back and came out of the door. Still speaking over his shoulder to Anko, and then he smirked down at me.

"Hey." I said. Sasuke just nodded, still smirking. I felt my fingers twitch. "Why are you being so weird?" I asked as we began to walk down the corridor.

"Weird?" He repeated, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Yeah?" …What?

"Sasuke!"

"Sasuke…" He copied me in a whiny voice. I laughed and looked around, curious to see who'd seen Sasuke act so out of character. I realized that the smirk had returned to his face as we walked past a group of girls, a lot of them clutching at their hearts and squealing in his wake. Can you guess who was among these girls? Ami was. And she was talking to Sakura.

As we walked by, Ami stuck her friggin' foot out and tripped me. But it was okay because thanks to all of that crazy martial arts training, I was pretty nimble on my feet.

"What the fu—?" I spun around to see Ami look oh so concerned.

"Oh! Sorry, Kari! Wow, sorry! Are you okay?" I twitched.

"Yeah… don't worry about it." Ami nodded and looked up at my companion - the tall, dark and handsome Uchiha boy. The one that made girls and boys alike stop and stare and watch him pass, either in jealousy or just pure want.

"Heeeeeeyyyyy… Sasuke," Ami tilted her head in the way Sasuke often did when he was confused or curious, trying to be cute, "Aw, now look at that Sakura, it's Sasuke and Kari. Aren't they just the cutest?" Her tone wasn't mocking, as I had expected it to be. It was sly, and you could only tell that she was being a cow if you were a girl. Boys just wouldn't understand the way a girls eyes flash when they're in bitch-mode. We're like an undetectable gas, one that seeps into your lungs, choking you, drowning you. And no one would ever know. I guessed she was a great actor. You had to be to pull that one off, that snake-like deception. Ami's 'girls' minus Sakura nodded and cooed, Sakura just glared at a space on the wall behind Sasuke, who gave her a tiny tilt of the head to try and get her attention.

Sasuke, you dirty little flirt.

"So what lesson do you have now, Sasuke?" One of Ami's gang asked.

"Art." Sasuke replied bluntly, not even looking at the girl (to her dismay), and then looked down at me with that bright shine in his obsidian eyes, "With Kari." And with that he took off, dragging me by the wrist.

Once outside the maths building Sasuke let go and walked at a normal pace. Pfft, when I say normal, I mean for him. Not for me. I was still practically running after him.

"Was that the girl in your English class you were talking about Monday?" He asked, slowing down before we reached the Expressive Arts block.

"Yeah, Ami or something." I replied vaguely, "But I can handle myself." I added hastily, seeing Sasuke grimace.

"I know that." He thought for a moment, "But if she gets Sakura backing her up you better watch out—"

"Oh, come on! Do the girls at this school actually lash out at each other? I'm sure Sakura's intelligent enough not to get herself into that kind of trouble."

"You'd be surprised how the Tai-jutsu and extra curricular activities affect the psyche of some of the chicks here…" Sasuke trailed off, his fingers going absent-mindedly to his red and black striped tie. "Not to mention how bad most of them want one of these."

"Are the ties really such a big deal? Like - no offence or anything."

"Not to me or Itachi really, our whole family's scored one of these in their first or second years here. The Uchiha are bred from a warrior clan and— well, you get my point." He looked at his reflection in one of the windows as we made our way up the stairs and along the corridor towards our art class. "But anyway, the girls seem to have developed this idea that I'd only ever date girls that are elite enough to earn a sports honours tie." He smirked at the idea. I looked up at him, eyes narrowed.

"Would you?"

"Tch, no." He scoffed at the thought, "How's that idea gonna work when I leave school?"

"Good point." I shrugged, pushing open the door and stepping into the classroom, apologizing for our lateness to Kurenai-sensei, who was actually the prettiest lady in the whole world. She had shoulder length, curly hair that was so dark brown it was almost black, and blood red irises. Her eyes were always wide open which gave her a slightly crazed or on-drugs look, but at least you knew she was paying attention to you when she spoke.

"Why are you so late?" She questioned as Sasuke and I made our way to our assigned (lame) seats. Sasuke sat down in his seat, looking out of the window with a bored expression on his face next to a girl from homeroom who I'd come to know as Kin. I didn't like her, she always acted in an 'I'm too cool to be here' manner and was the personification of BITCH.

Or… was that Ami?

Meh.

I mumbled something about 'Let out of class late' whilst plonking down into my seat at the back, next to some creepy guy who would always draw bugs down to the smallest detail. He didn't talk much, but when he did, it was quiet and vague, and quite frankly, he creeped me out. His name was Shino.

Kurenai explained that today we'd be doing some realism, and that usually involved us choosing an object in the classroom and sitting there for the whole hour and ten minutes complaining about how we couldn't draw a jar properly or how our petals looked like deformed books.

Sasuke never complained. He was usually subtly batting Kin away from him and just… drawing.

Which, may I say, he was really good at. It was as if the marmite jar was about to leap off of the page or the flower would wilt if you touched it. I don't know, he was just really good.

There was about five minutes of shuffling and bickering as people chose their… things to draw… and borrowed pencils and such like. And there was the usual circle of whingeing and bitching at Sasuke to draw it for a certain group of girls.

"Ha, no." Was the usual response, a glare thrown in or cute shrug. He probably knew he could get them to do anything he wanted with a simple glance in their direction. Lucky guy.

So I was just, like, there. Ya know, doing my work, rubbing out furiously, growling and almost pulling out my hair, when I felt a shadow looming over me. I looked up and almost fell off my seat. Sasuke was just looking at my book with a small smirk on his (gorgeous) face.

"What the hell?" I gasped, then laughed, "Scared me!" Sasuke continued to stare at my pathetic line drawing, he picked up my book and looked at it even harder, for a long, long time.

"This sucks." He said eventually.

"Gee, thanks for the support." I muttered, half smiling half cringing. Sasuke quietly moved his chair around from where Kin was sitting and dropped down in front of me. I just stared, obviously making him uncomfortable since he moved his gaze to my mess of rubbings out and dodgy looking lines, then back up.

"You want some help, or what?" He asked me, tilting his head slightly so that his bangs shifting across his face.
"What about your work?" I took his book and opened to the latest page, surprised to see that he hadn't done anything.

"Hn. I can do it later…" He told me distractedly, sketching swiftly over my page. I stayed quiet, just watching as the shape of a human hand came into view. And then another one, bigger, he drew their fingertips touching just barely and so lightly that you'd have to look at it really hard to see, but they were touching, each of the hands middle and index fingers barely ghosting over one another.

"Are you freakin' kidding me?" I asked, completely amazed. He looked up briefly, lip twitching upwards.

"I'd be laughing if I was."

"No fair, I've only ever seen you laugh when you hit Suigetsu in the nose with the soccer ball a few days ago."

At this, Sasuke chuckled: a light, airy sound that had a few people looking in our direction. He was immediately stone-faced again.

"Good times…" He said quietly, handing me back my book.

"Sasuke, how do you draw like this?" I asked, purely shocked. He gave one of those one-shoulder shrugs and opened his own book, sketching away while I asked him what he did Sunday and sang the chorus to 'The City is at War' under my breath. I'd been friggin memorizing it ever since Sasuke left my place on Saturday evening. Sheesh.

I noticed something. Sasuke was wearing arm-warmers. Dark blue and running from his knuckles to the middle of his forearm. And, if I recall correctly, he was wearing them on Saturday too. He'd just looked so stunningly hot that I hadn't really noticed his accessories.

Huh, funny.

"I like your wrist warmers." I stated, just because I'd seen them. Sasuke's wrist shifted slightly but he gave no other response, then closed his book, stood up, stretched slightly, gave a small smirk, and walked back to his desk. I stared after him, curious. Then down into my book at the picture of the hands he'd drawn for me.

"Hey, hold up. Miss! Kurenai-sensei!" Someone shrieked.

"What is it?" Kurenai turned around, exasperated.

"Kari made Sasuke do her sketch for her! That is so not fair! Sasuke's really good at all that stuff so she's gonna get a good grade for it! Miss, make her do it again!"

"Tch," Came Sasuke's arrogant sneer from across the classroom, "I didn't do Kari's work for her," A few of the girls looked at the one who'd spoken against him with contempt. "I just felt like doing a picture for her… in… her book…" He trailed off, probably realizing how odd that sounded. A few people raised their eyebrows. "Am I not allowed to draw a picture for my girlfriend?" He asked suddenly, rolling his hand open so that his palm was facing the ceiling in a lazy and bored manner, causing me to look down as the girls instantly began gushing and cooing and squealing at how 'cute' and 'sweet' and 'cool' Sasuke was.


"I am so bored." Suigetsu informed the group of us at lunch. Karin threw him a sideways glance.

"You're always bored."

"No…"

"Yes, you are."

"Yeah, but I'm not though. I just… don't like doing repetitive things. Nor do I like the way your fan girls are treating Kari at the moment, Sasuke."

"Huh?" Sasuke and I looked up in unison. Karin nodded in agreement, playing with a strand of her hair and handing Juugo the rest of her sandwich. A boy's gotta eat…

"You know that girl—"

"Yeah, Suigetsu, it doesn't matter, I can handle myself." I interjected, finding the whole subject of me being targeted by a group of obsessive girls intensely embarrassing. I don't wanna know how weak I may be… I especially don't want Sasuke thinking I need anymore back up like he'd done in art. Urgh. That was so embarrassing!

"That's not gonna stop them leaking rumours and shit, is it?" Sui piped up, Sasuke stopped yanking grass out of the ground – apparently a habbit – and bit his lip, thinking.

"What do you mean?" I asked, Karin whipped out her phone and began texting violently. Seconds later, my phone vibrated and I pulled it out of my school blazer pocket and walked away, mumbling something about a phone call.

It wasn't really, I just didn't want Sasuke to know that Karin had been texting me something about him. Because, I mean, how much does it hurt when you're speaking about someone right in front of them, and the conversation is so awkward that you have to pretend that the person isn't there? Man, it's just… bad. Sasuke had probably worked it out anyway because he was now giving Karin his 'thinking' evils.

"Hello?" I spoke to nobody, in particular, just my phone that wasn't even connected to anyone… scanned through my text messages and opened the new one from Karin.

To: Kari

From: Karin

Hi, rumours are what broke Sasuke and Sakura up, duh! Bye xxx

Duh… how could I be so stupid? Urgh, get your brain in gear, Kari!

"So, how's Mr. Nobody doing?" Sasuke asked lightly when I returned. I saw that he wasn't smirking and sat down, flushing. DAMN! THAT'S THE SECOND TIME THIS WEEK.

"Uh."

"If you and Karin want to talk about me, go ahead. I don't mind. I'm in those magazines and gossip articles enough, I don't think your pretending I don't exist would hurt that much. Suigetsu, Juugo. Let's go play soccer. I'm bored." And he stood up, taking his blazer off and dropping it by his bag, a small frown on his face. Suigetsu gave Karin a look that said 'Now look what you've done!', however, she just rolled her eyes and allowed him to kiss her cheek Juugo smiled and nodded at the two of us and the three of them left us in the shade of some giant tree with a name that I did not know and headed off to where most of the boys from our grade had started a game of soccer.

Karin sighed.

"I think I pissed him off."

"No, it was me, I think..." I said, feeling slightly guilty, watching him retreat. "Sorry."

"Hah! Don't worry about it. Sasuke just gets stressed out and paranoid over everything these days."

"Paranoid?" I quizzed her, "What, because of the thing with his mom?"

"No… like, every time he gets a girlfriend or something, the media and all that go really weird and never shut up or leave him alone and it creeps him out, ya know? He prefers being alone."

"Alone." I repeated, the picture of the hands flashing through my mind. "I get it." There was a short silence.

"He was pretty impressed about how you handled the paparazzi." Karin told me, nodding expertly, "It freaked him and Sakura out quite a bit, and there was so much tension that…"

"They believed anything that was said to them?" I finished. Karin nodded again.

"Yeah."

"Aw…" I rummaged through my pockets, searching for my time-table to find out what lesson I had next. Ewh, Citizenship… "My first day here, I told him that I couldn't imagine him having, like, a breakdown."

"Uh-huh?"

"And he said 'Oh, it's happened.' – like that. I didn't understand what he meant…"

"He's punched a few of the paparazzi before because they were asking him all of this personal shit about Sakura – Sasuke was like, thirteen when he started dating her – and they were asking all of this 'have you had sex yet?… are you planning anything for the future?', you know, that stuff—"

"And they were thirteen? That's ridiculous!" I was incredulous.

"Yeah! I know, it's unbelievable." Karin focussed back on what she had been telling me, "But yeah, anyway, so he's lost his temper a few times. And then about a year ago he had like a really hard time when he heard his mom was sick and the media caught wind of it." Karin fidgeted, as if deciding whether or not she could trust me with this information, she decided I was worth it and nodded again – this time, more to herself – "Like he would actually not come out of his room, and whenever Sui and Juugo went to see him, Suigetsu would be texting me the whole time going 'He's so freaked out, get over here, now.' And all this." Karin tripped over her words a few times, obviously hurting remembering it. Sasuke was one of her best friends, after-all. I was still curious to what she meant by 'freaked out', but let it slide.

"Oh my gosh, was he okay?"

"He was after a while, I think Itachi spoke to him or something and, as you can see, one year on, he's grown up, he knows that his mother may not make it, he understands the consequences…" Karin listed each one with a serious expression. "But still, we're all praying and hoping that she'll get better, because if that was how bad it was when he found out that his mom was sick, what's it gonna be like if – God forbid – she does die?"

I stayed silent, thinking. I couldn't imagine. I didn't want to. Sasuke in 'freaking out'? Panicking? Crying? What? I don't think I'd be able to imagine him as the smart-Alec-y, calm and controlled, smexalicious beast that he was.

No, wait. He could keep the title of smexalicious beast. Because it suits him.


I jogged along the corridor to keep up with Suigetsu and Sasuke as they sped off to citizenship. Karin and Juugo had gone to get some water or something.

"Sasuke!" I yelled eventually, reaching the door to the classroom. He just gave me this look that said 'act natural or I will cut you.'

"Yeah, what? Let go of my arm... good."

"Uh, sorry about earlier, I wasn't really thinking." I said quietly, yanking him down to my level so that he would hear me over the hubbub of the routine school lesson-finding and what-not.

"Don't worry about it." Was what he said before he took my hand in his (tighter than usual) grip and walked stiffly into class.

I don't think he'd gotten over it yet. Ugh, why must we always fight?


OH WHY, BT, WHY WOULD YOU CUT OFF MY INTERNET AT SUCH A CRUCIAL TIME? DID YOU NOT KNOW I HAVE IMPORTANT PEOPLE READING THIS STORY? PEOPLE WITH NEEDS? NEEDS THAT MUST BE SATISFIED, DAMNIT?

Ehem. I'm so sorry that I left this to dwindle away. I got scared, people weren't reviewing, and it took me longer to write chapters and we're starting our GCSE coursework and what-not in Citizenship and I'm task-leader and it's all just so damn confusing. HOWEVER – THIS WILL BE CONTINUED! FOREVER…!

Please review! I've missed those things!

YourChemicalRomancex