It was blessedly quiet in the Umino house, which was unusual, if not slightly suspicious. Sasuke rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling, sighing. After all the noise at the amusement park yesterday, the silence was refreshing. He closed his eyes and snuggled deeper into his bed. There were no girls, no dog-breathed Kiba, no-
"Hey, Sasu-chan," Naruto's voice sounded in Sasuke's ear; he could feel the heat of the idiot's breath on his cheek. Damn! Sasuke hadn't even heard Naruto approach- he shouldn't have let his guard down.
"Hey, hey, Sasu-chan," Naruto repeated, this time poking Sasuke's arm repeatedly.
Sasuke cracked an eye open to glare at Naruto, growling, "What?"
The blond's face filled Sasuke's field of vision. "Hey, Iruka-san wants to talk to you."
Sasuke put his back to Naruto, "Later."
"Ah, I get it," Naruto's smile was evident in his voice, "somebody's grumpy because he can't see his girlfriend today."
Sasuke slowly turned over, radiating barely suppressed anger. "Excuse me?"
Naruto's eyes widened at the other boy's deadly look, but he continued, "You and Hinata seemed pretty chummy after the Tunnel of Love yesterday- is that when you confessed? Honestly, I'm glad you've got a girlfriend, now Sakura has no reason to reject me again-!"
"You think Hyuuga is my girlfriend?" Sasuke interrupted, feeling both angry and amused, but mostly stupefied as to how Naruto could have come to such a conclusion.
"Well, I mean, you seemed so excited to go to the amusement park, and then you were pretty nice the whole time- you know, for you," Naruto explained. "Plus you gave Hinata that prize and didn't jump overboard during the Tunnel of Love." The blond chuckled.
Sasuke sat up with a scowl, trying to sort out his conflicted emotions. On one hand, beyond the whole blackmail thing, Hinata was mostly tolerable, even if she couldn't cook. She was kinda pretty, too, but she had a really bizarre taste in music. Sasuke felt a little, inexplicably, disappointed as he remembered her crush on Naruto. The idiot was still unaware, despite Hinata's best efforts the day before, and now he thought she was dating Sasuke!
The Uchiha eyed Naruto; as much as he would like to say he was dating Hinata- if only for protection from Sakura and Ino!- he couldn't, in good conscience, claim to be her boyfriend while she was in love with Naruto. Could he?
"Sasu-chan, you okay? You really zoned out there for a second," Naruto laughed awkwardly, waving a hand in Sasuke's face.
Abruptly standing up from the bed, Sasuke pushed Naruto aside.
"H-hey, where are you going?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke looked at the other boy out of the corner of his eye. "To see Iruka." His tone of voice left little doubt as to what Sasuke thought of Naruto's intelligence.
Iruka sat at the low dining table with a blanket tucked up around his legs; he laid down his newspaper as Sasuke entered the room.
"Sasuke-kun, please sit down," Iruka gestured at a cushion on the opposite side of the table from which he sat.
As the boy sat down, Sasuke was struck by the familiarity of it all- it was just like when his father wanted to lecture or punish him.
Sasuke mentally sorted through all of the events since the beginning of school that could possibly get him in trouble- oh, shit. Had Hyuuga made good on her blackmail and turned him in? But yesterday seemed to go so well, hell, he was even kinda starting to like the girl! Was Sasuke to be sent home, to the shame of the Uchiha family? This never would have happened if it weren't for that dumbass, Naruto-.
"Sasuke-kun, are you listening to me?" Iruka's voice broke into Sasuke's thoughts.
"Excuse me, sir," the polite words tumbled awkwardly from the teen's lips, and he was embarrassed to admit to himself that he even thought about bowing.
Tch. As if.
Iruka gave a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, an idiosyncratic combination he usually reserved for Naruto. "I was saying that your Japanese teacher, Kurenai-san, spoke with me on Friday."
Sasuke's shoulders slumped with relief; Kurenai wasn't part of the peeping investigation team.
"Kurenai-san was concerned," Iruka continued. "She says your Japanese is not improving as it should be in an immersive environment." He fixed the teenager with a sharp look. "Kurenai-san says it's almost as if you don't want to improve." Sasuke couldn't help his defiant smirk, which Iruka graciously ignored. "I know this is not the case, as an Uchiha always pursues perfection," Sasuke found himself at the wrong end of another pointed look, "so I have arranged for one of Kurenai-san's top English students to help tutor you. Your lessons will be after school, during club time. Kakashi-san has offered classroom 2-B for your lessons." Iruka steepled his fingers in front of his face and fixed his gaze on Sasuke. "I fully expect you to attend these lessons, Sasuke-kun. If you do not, I will be forced to notify your father of your unsatisfactory grades."
All of Sasuke's half-formed notions of skipping the tutoring sessions flew out of the window.
"Eh? What's wrong, Sasu-chan?" Naruto bumped noisily into the room. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"Good timing, Naruto-kun," Iruka said as he stood up from the table. "I was just about to start dinner, and Sasuke-kun was kind enough to volunteer the both of you to help me. Isn't that right, Sasuke-kun?" he asked blithely.
Sasuke answered through gritted teeth, "Yes, sir." As much as he hated to admit it, Sasuke knew when he'd been beaten.
"Aw, man, Iruka-san!" Naruto wailed. "I was just about to upload my new video to YouTube!"
"YouTube will still be there when you get done," Iruka said sagely. "Though what the appeal of watching you and that Inuzuka boy eat hamburgers until you throw up is, I'll never guess."
"That was one video!" Naruto huffed defensively. "And it has over 2000 views!"
If Naruto could distract Iruka just a little bit longer, Sasuke could sneak away. He edged slightly closer to the door-.
"Don't you even try that with me, young man!" Iruka's voice cut through the living room.
Damn.
Luckily, Iruka had planned a hot pot dinner, so all Sasuke and Naruto had to do was chop vegetables while Iruka prepared the meat.
"Shit, that's like a mountain of cabbage!" Naruto's eyes widened at the sight of the vegetables. "How much hot pot are we making?"
Iruka sliced beef calmly as he replied, "Enough to eat tonight, and enough for you boys to take for lunch tomorrow." He slid the meat into the cast iron pot to sear. "Swimming lessons start tomorrow with Gai-san, so I want you to have something hearty to eat."
"Swimming lessons?" Sasuke intoned incredulously. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, did you think the school swimming pool was just for show?" Naruto laughed, elbowing his friend in the side. "Plus it's a great chance to check out all the girls in their swimsuits," he smiled smarmily.
Sasuke sighed, unceremoniously dumping his cabbage into the pot before grabbing an onion. "You're such a pervert."
"Hey, now," Naruto brandished a bunch of shungiku at Sasuke, "I'm not the one who almost-!"
"Oh, my god, Naruto, isn't this onion delicious!" Sasuke forcibly crammed the onion into Naruto's blabbing mouth.
The blond munched on the onion thoughtfully, much to Sasuke's surprise. "Yeah, it is, but I don't know why you had to give me the whole thing. Now there won't be enough onion in our hot pot!"
Sasuke sighed—what did Hinata see in this guy? "You are such a dumbass."
Hello, dear readers! I'm sorry this chapter is late. A combination of emotional breakdowns and massive system updates to my laptop prevented me from posting on time. I'm kind of going through a rough patch right now, so expect the next chapter in about 2.5 weeks. Ish. Maybe. I'm going to aim for October 8!