Merry Christmas! Though this is 2 hours late for Christmas but that's okay! By the way, (spoiler alert) my strategy for threatening Kishimoto-san to bring a certain raven back worked. I am so happy. It was the best Christmas miracle yet!
Itachi: It is good to be alive (smiles)
Sakura: (faints)
Itachi: It's good to be popular
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and if there is a 'Timeless' magazine, I don't own that either. I own nothing but the plot . . . for the most part.
"May I speak to you, Iruka-sensei?" Sasuke's voice startled Iruka, causing him to jump in his seat.
"Oh, Uchiha-kun, what can I help you with?" Iruka stood up from his desk. "I was just grading papers."
Sasuke walked into the room and closed the door behind him quietly as if to make sure he wouldn't be disturbed. He faced Iruka with one of his fake business smiles. "I've just been selected by my company to go on a tour in England, so I wanted to tell you that I will not be in school starting next week," he said but his voice lacked the enthusiasm.
"Well congratulations! It's nice see our students do well in their careers." Iruka smile brightly. "It's a nice change of pace. Uzumaki-kun can learn quite a bit from you."
"That's another thing I wanted to speak to you about. Uzumaki-san is going with me."
"Is he now?" Iruka's smile lessened just a tad. "It's that internship job that Shizune-san was talking about, right."
"Hai," Sasuke nodded. "The agency is really considering the possibility of having him join our group."
"Really now," Iruka continued to smile. "I'm happy for him. Just let me get my cell phone, so I can remind myself to write out an assignment sheet for you two before you leave." Iruka opened his top drawer and shuffled through its contents.
Sasuke watched absent mindedly, that was until a flash of silver in the drawer caught his attention. It was a hitai-ate with a leaf carved into the center of it. Sasuke mentally cursed. He instinctively grabbed the closest object in his reach and held it in front of him just in time to stop a kunai from plunging through his chest. Sasuke threw the textbook he had grabbed back at Iruka and moved out of the way of Iruka's next assault of shuriken. Sasuke kicked a nearby desk up in the air so that it blocked the shuriken. He caught the desk before it could crash into anything and cause unwanted attention.
Iruka cursed and backed away quickly from the Uchiha.
"Well I think it's safe to say that you know what I am." Sasuke glared. "I didn't appreciate the attack though. I won't die from such attacks, but it still hurts." He motioned to the scratch he received on his hand from one of the shuriken. "When did you find out?"
"Everyone who is a part of the hidden leaf would know that the Akatsuki is run by a bunch of blood suckers." Iruka glared right back.
To Iruka surprise, Sasuke laughed. "Your right about that. They are all insane. Even I'm a bit afraid of them sometimes." Sasuke's face dropped to its usual stoic features. "That's still no reason to attack me though."
"Of course there is. You're turning Naruto into one of your kind," Iruka struggled not to yell, but his fists clenched at his sides.
Sasuke did not reply. He was right and there was no point in arguing the truth. Sasuke turned to leave.
"Where are you going Uchiha."
"After a person delivers a message, most of the time they leave to continue on with their own business. I don't believe I am an exception to that."
"I'm not done with you yet," Iruka drew two more kunai from his pocket, preparing to throw them.
Sasuke didn't bother to slow his steps to the door until he reached for the door handle. "Would you risk a confrontation with Pein and the rest of the Counsel by continuing with an assault against me?"
"Your side is weak. After we sealed the nine away, most of your side was destroyed."
"I do believe that your side lost just as many if not more than we did during the war. We are on equal footing." The bell rang. Sasuke opened the door and walked out, leaving a pissed off Iruka behind.
"Yo, Sasuke, earth to Sasuke you there?" Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts to see Naruto two inches away from his face.
"You know, if you want to kiss me, all you have to do is ask." Sasuke watched in amusement as Naruto retreated faster than what he thought was humanly possible.
Naruto's face held a dark blush but tried to hide it. "Like hell I would kiss you. First off, you're a guy. Second, who would kiss you?"
Sasuke looked at him almost lazily. "You didn't seems to have a problem with it yesterday."
"That was . . . er . . . I wasn't . . . Shut up!"
"What did you need, Dobe?"
"Deidara came back and told me to get you, so he can inform us on the shoot we're going to do." He muttered bitterly.
"Well let's get today's shoot over with." Sasuke grabbed the blonde's hand. "So hurry up."
"That's okay. I don't really want to do this picture with you." Naruto attempted to pull his hand out of his grasp, but quickly gave that idea up, realizing it was a futile attempt. "Sure, how bad can it be."
*Two minutes Later*
"There is no way in hell I'm doing that!" Naruto yelled out in anger, clutching a knife from the buffet table in his hand.
"Calm down, idiot." Sasuke was holding him back effortlessly, but still a little bit annoyed. "It's just a picture, and it won't even be in the magazine. It's just for fun."
"What if it does get out somehow? I wouldn't be able to show my face!"
Sasuke took the knife from him and handed it to Deidara. "Deidara-san, will you promise not to release this picture to the public."
"Yeah, sure. I just want to see what I'm going to be working with Naruto-kun. I swear." Deidara was practically jumping up and down.
"You see, Dobe, he gave you his word. Now will you stop acting stupid." He let Naruto go. Naruto stumbled forward a bit and glared.
"Fine," he grumbled and pouted like a little kid, his bottom lip sticking out a bit. Sasuke felt his cheeks warm and looked at Deidara. "Bring out the outfits."
The shoot went surprisingly well even if there was a reluctant participant. As for the pictures, Naruto tried not to look at the outcomes. In his mind, Naruto was hoping they would vanish if he pretended they didn't exist.
Naruto wiped the sweat off his forehead."Who knew being a model was so hard." He took a swing from his water bottle that was spiked with three drops of blood, courtesy of Sasuke. In the corner of his eye, he saw one of the employees' cold eyes glaring at him. Naruto watched the employee curiously. Glancing around, he noticed there was several other employees giving him cold hard looks. Why would the employees be angry at him? Was his modeling really that bad? All of a sudden, the employees stiffened and went back to work. The teen turned around to see the blonde photographer with a huge smile.
"Is something wrong, Naruto-kun?" Deidara handed him a manila folder marked 'photos'.
Naruto took the folder with a bit of hesitation and replied, "Nothing at all."
Naruto walked into class the next morning in a fairly good mood. Sasuke was not there to tease him that morning. It was cloudy, and there was a light autumn breeze that made outside quite enjoyable, and Tobi gave Naruto a legitimate shinobi's katana. Naruto was a bit worried because Tobi said he should keep it with him at all times, but he was too ecstatic to really care.
"Oh my God! It's him! Naruto-kun!" Sakura squealed. Naruto winced at the loudness and the next thing he knew he was being hugged by Sakura and surrounded by a lot of girls.
"It's so not fair. I can't believe you're dating him." Ino sighed dramatically and flipped her pale blonde hair over her shoulder.
"I know. It must be because I am the only one who deserves him." She sighed dreamily.
Yeah, that's completely it."What got you girls so excited?"
"We saw the magazine." Ino and Sakura said together followed by squealing, waving the magazine everywhere.
Kiba snatched the magazine from their hands and stared in open mouth shock. "Naruto, man . . . I had no idea . . . I mean you could have told me. We still would have been friends even if you go that way."
"Wait, let me see that." Naruto grabbed the magazine away from him. He stared at the magazine with a blank stare, but his hands shook in anger. "He is so fucking dead." On the front of 'Timeless' magazine was one of the pictures from yesterday's shoot. The background consisted of black and red silk draped from the ceiling over a bed surrounded by candles. Sasuke was lying on his back in a pair of tight black jeans low on his hips and the zipper undone with no shirt. His hands were tied with hand cuffs above his head. His eyes stared at the camera. His face looked emotionless, but his eyes looked glazed over like he was debating if he was scared or in ecstasy. Naruto was acting the part of a vampire. He was wearing a black, Italian silk shirt that was half way unbuttoned with matching black slacks. He had a hand on either side of Sasuke's body, his mouth next to Sasuke's neck holding a satisfied smirk and a fang peeking out from under his lip. A trail of blood was on the corner of his lips that dripped onto Sasuke's pale skin. Naruto's blue eyes held lust in them as they looked into the camera. They held a sense of possession over his prey. "And I spent all last night burning the photos."
"Well that would explain why you two are living together." Kiba smirked. "So, Naruto, did you finally get laid."
Naruto glared at Kiba. "No," he grounded through his teeth.
"Is that disappointment I hear?" Kiba snickered and dodged a book thrown by the angry blonde. "Now, now, denial isn't good for you."
"Kiba do you really want to be neutered so badly."
"Down, Dobe," Sasuke walked between the two teens gracefully and took his seat and a millisecond later, he was surrounded by girls and one fanboy.
Naruto fought through the crowd, shoving them, mostly Sakura, out of the way. "Teme! What the hell did you do?! I thought you said this was just for fun." Naruto slammed the magazine on Sasuke's desk.
"That's why I went to see Deidara today when I saw the magazine. Technically the magazine was finalized by the time we took the picture for this month's issue; however, Deidara said our picture was too good to pass up on, so he pulled some strings and changed it.
"He does realize that when I find him, I'm going to kill his immortal ass." Naruto's eyebrow twitched with annoyance.
"He said to just try it and that he'll kick your newborn ass any day."
"Well tell him that-"
"Good morning class, everyone in their seats." Kakashi walked in quickly and right as the bell rang. Everyone stared. Kakashi walked in as the bell rang. He was on time. This didn't compute with the rest of the students for they didn't move. They just stared blankly at their teacher and wondered who replaced him.
"I said everyone in their seats. Unless that is you rather read Icha Icha Tactics." Kakashi eyes curved into upside down U's.
Students hurried to their desk, tripping over one another in the process. They all got to their seats in pretty much less than 5 seconds except Kabuto who laid trampled in the back. "A little help here guys."
"Now that everyone is in their seats," Kakashi said cheerfully, ignoring the soft cries of Kabuto. "I have some sad news to share with all of you. Gaara no Suna will not be joining us for the rest of the year."
Of course most of the class did not really care or knew who he was. He was silent , violent, and tended to 'accidentally' stab people with things: pencils, plastic knives, erasers, etc. One blonde however was not as accepting.
"What do you mean Gaara's gone!" The blonde had stood up so quickly the desk fell over.
"I would appreciate it if you would please sit down and be quiet, Uzumaki." Kakashi's face might have looked happy but the bite in his tone and the use of Naruto's last name made shivers run up his spine. He quietly picked up his desk and sat down.
Naruto felt Kakashi's gaze on him, and he couldn't help but squirm. It wasn't even the eye that was visible that he was worried about. It was the eye that was covered by his silver hair that was creeping him out. Granted, he couldn't see the eye, but none the less, he felt its gaze.
Class went by excruciatingly slow. Naruto felt like he was being watched by Kakashi the whole class, and when he wasn't being watched, he watched Kakashi glare at Sasuke for brief seconds before looking away. Naruto jumped up when the bell rang and ran to catch up with Sasuke. "Ne, Sasuke."
Sasuke stared at Naruto with a slightly, but barely noticeable, shocked expression.
"What?" Naruto asked impatiently.
"You want something don't you." Sasuke shook his head and cleared away the expression.
"Now why would you say that," Naruto asked nervously, scratching the back of his head.
"You've never called me by my name before." Sasuke stopped at his locker and began switching out his books.
"Sure I have." Naruto said defensively, pouting.
Cute. "Name one time."
"Well," Naruto started but trailed off quickly frowning. "Fine I haven't, but it doesn't mean that I want something."
"What is it you wanted to talk to me about then, Dobe?" Sasuke dropped his bag and folded his arms expectantly.
Naruto shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. "Can you take me to Suna to see Gaara?"
"And this is not wanting something?" he said sarcastically, trying not to roll his eyes.
"Well can you do it or not."
"I can, but why should I?" Sasuke picked up his bag and began down the hall.
"Because I'm worried about one of my best friends. I don't see him in 2 days and then randomly he moves back home. It's not like him."
Sasuke looked at him dead in the face. "If I take you, will you please stop whining over that stupid toad I threw out."
"He was a family pet!" Naruto glared. "You had no right throwing him out."
"It's my house. I'm not going to sit around while a toad the size of my big screen TV occupies my bathtub 24/7." Sasuke retorted.
Naruto and Sasuke went into a glaring contest. After two minutes, Naruto finally sighed. "Okay, I'll give up on letting him in the house as long as he stays in the pond out back."
"Deal." Sasuke agreed quite satisfied. "We'll leave for Suna tonight."
"Oi," the voice drew the attention of the two boys to its owner, Neji. Neji walked up to them, his face in its usual scowl when approaching Naruto. This time however, his scowl was lacking. Bags were under his eyes and his eyes were tainted pink. His hair wasn't in its usual ponytail and it was uncombed. He looked like he had just crawled out of hell. "I want to go with you guys."
"Why the hell would we let you go?! You don't even like Gaara. Plus, what type of request is that. You didn't even say please. You don't go asking people to do stuff for you without being at least somewhat polite. And another thing -"
"Okay," Sasuke cut off Naruto's rant with his one word. "Be at the airport at 6 pm tonight." Sasuke turned heel on that note, leaving a gaping Naruto behind.
Yelling. That is what one does not want to wake up to. Unfortunately for a certain red head, that was the case. He pulled his big red comforter and silk sheets over his head to try to block out the sound. When the yelling didn't stop he glared at the first thing he could see which just so happened to be his clock. Two fucking o'clock in the afternoon. Gaara glared harder at the clock and threw it across the room. It was way too earlier. He wasn't planning to get up for another 3 to 4 hours. Whoever it was making all that noise was going to die slowly and painfully. He sat up slowly and forced himself out of bed. He avoided tripping over a random puppet that his brother left in his room; however, he ended up running into the edge of the half opened door. Gaara no Suna was not a morning or afternoon person or whenever he woke up person which was why no one ever caught him sleeping because he was quite violent when he was half asleep. He made it outside his room and into the hallway. Now that Gaara was somewhat awake he could pick out the two voices arguing. One was his brother, Kankuro. It was no surprise since his brother liked to pick fights with people, but the other voice he picked out made him smile a bit. He looked over the balcony that overlooked the large foyer and grand marble staircase on either side of him and called out just loud enough for everyone to hear him. "Naruto."
"Yo, Gaara!" Naruto grinned up at him, momentarily forgetting the argument he was in.
Gaara jumped off the balcony landing gracefully in front of his company. Naruto's eyes looked like they were about to pop out in amazement and he could swear he heard Sasuke mutter, "show off."
"What are you doing here?" Gaara asked.
"We were worried about you." Naruto answered as if there was no more obvious reason.
"Well as you can see, I'm fine." He pointed to his house and staff. "Quite well provided for."
"Yeah, so you guys can just go home." Kankuro jumped in, still glaring at his supposed 'guests'.
"But I wanted to wreak havoc, I mean play with Gaara-kun." Naruto whined acting cute. On the inside he grinned evilly. No one can resist this face. Not even 'baa-chan.
"I guess you can stay for a cup of ramen." Gaara turned to show them the way to the kitchen. He stopped when a breeze from a nearby open window stopped him. He spun around quickly and saw Neji standing quietly behind Naruto and Sasuke. He glared at Sasuke who just stood there with a smug look across his face.
Neji caught Gaara's gaze and waved but tried to avoid looking straight at him.
Gaara was about to say something to Sasuke when something crashed loudly in the background. All occupants in the room turned towards the noise. A giant vase laid broken into many pieces with a guilty looking Naruto standing next to it. "What?"
They all just stared at him in silence. They glanced at the house around them and cursed. Everything around them was expensive and all in the grasp of a certain Uzumaki, Naruto.
So, that's the end of that. I felt we needed a chapter that wasn't quite so heavy. Yes, Naruto is acting kind of uke-ish but it's his way on trying to get what he wants. By the way if you see a mistake, tell me!
So, my goal is 20 reviews this chapter. My last few chapters haven't really gotten reviews, and I'm working on improving my older chapters. If anyone got any constructive criticisms, I'm all ears. I really don't mind flames. However, writing, "You're a faggot" is not a flame. That is called being an asshole. Other than that, review. If you haven't taken the poll on whether this story should have a happy ending or not, please take it. Or write it in a review. Happily holidays to every one and may your dreams come true (wow corny much).