Disclaimer: Naruto, his friends and the world he lives in don't belong to me but to Masashi Kishimoto. I write this story only for my pleasure and I don't make any money with it.

Chapter Thirty-Three: The girls are not from Konoha

Naruto was glad that he was allowed to dance with girls, not because he hated dancing with Sasuke (he did not) but because he no longer stood out and could pretend now that he was just like the other teenagers. He danced with as many girls as he could, asking them for their names and making smalltalk about the dancing and the weather and whether they preferred the new female dance teacher to last week's male one, hoping that they would not ask which school he went to (most times he was lucky.)

Most girls regretted when they had to part. "You dance well", they said. "With you, my feet just know where to go."

Naruto thanked them, beaming: getting complimented by girls was something he could get used to. Still dancing with them did not prove to be as enjoyable as he had thought it would be, and he wasn't in the least as eager as the other boys who looked around for pretty girls even when they were still with their previous partner and could not wait to ask the girl of their choice lest someone else should be quicker than them. Others simply pretended to ignore when they were told to change partners and stuck with the girl they were dancing with, happy they had found a partner they liked.

Naruto always changed, as none of the girls managed to stand out to him. They were all pretty and nice in his opinion, and being allowed to touch them for the purpose of dancing was wonderful at the same time, but on the other hand they all felt and looked the same to him: Light and easy to lead, just moving where he led them. It was as if he was dancing with himself, so little resistance did they give him, and so little of their own did they add to the dancing.

He got aware of how little he cared about them when one of the girls gave him funny looks when he asked her for her name and when she interrupted him just when he wanted to tell her his own:

"I know, it's Naruto. We've danced with each other before."

He tried to patch it up, explaining that he had a bad memory for names. The real reason was of course that he did had forgotten her name as soon as she had told him, as he was not really interested in it, as little as in the names of the other girls. They weren't from Konoha – why should he take any effort to get acquainted to them? He could not get involved with any of them for real, so why should he get attached and pay attention to their names? But he did not want to embarrass himself, so with the next girls he waited for them to ask him for his name instead of asking himself, and also he ceased to change partners after every dance. He was glad when they began to learn English Waltz, meaning that he had to stick with one and the same girl for some time.

It turned out however that his partner for English Waltz liked to lead herself. Her left arm did not lie gently on his upper right arm but firmly held his shoulder blade from above, restricting the movements of his arm.

"It's not correct", he told her. "And also, I am supposed to lead."

"Why should I not lead just because I am a girl?" she asked back.

She pushed him and shoved him and turned him around. Sasuke had been more considerate, Naruto thought, showing him where to move rather than making him move. He was glad when the female dance teacher joined them to have a look ar what went wrong and discovered that actually the girl had inserted some extra steps. When she had finally understood how she was meant to go being led by her did not feel as awkward as it had before, but still Naruto felt dragged around instead of being led (or leading, as he was supposed to be.) She dragged him around in the correct way, he thought, which was at least some progress in comparison to what she had done before.

Why did these girls not know about the middle way? Naruto wondered. Neither being like a feather, as his previous partners had been nor pushing and pulling him, as this one did. Sasuke had led him gently, he thought, and they had actually been communicating via their arms and hands. He missed him, thinking that with Sasuke he had actually hold someone in his arms with some weight of his own, someone who moved of his own accord (and moved well), someone who had a will of his own even though he followed (and sometimes did not follow.) He kept looking for him, and while he was glad that they had to separate he was also slightly jealous that Sasuke was doing well. He still had a bad conscience and when the break started he thanked his partner and told her that he had to look after his friend, yet when he saw Sasuke talking to the dance teacher he decided to buy drinks.

"Look at your friend!" the boys who stood in queue with him told him. "Again trying to catch the dance teacher's attention."

"Probably discussing the finer details of dancing", Naruto replied, wondering why he adopted Sasuke's arrogant style. He had to, hadn't he, in order to defend his friend. (He was aware of what the boys were implying.)

He was glad when it was his turn so that he could leave the boys and join Sasuke. They did not talk, they just felt the relief of being with each other again and not having to deal with strangers, and they regretted when the break ended and they had to separate again.

"Maybe we are lucky and next week some girls have chickened out", Naruto said.

Sasuke nodded. Knowing that it would be for the last time he was ready to face the teenage girls around him. Still he was glad that the next dance was Jive which was danced in open position, so that he only had to hold his partner's hand. He even decided to learn the girls's steps so that later he could dance with Naruto, and managed to appear unaffected by the stares he got from the boys around him. He would not have to cope with them for much longer, and anyway, he did not care about these teenage boys. Still he was far from being as oblivious as Naruto thought.

Just for the last dance Naruto turned up and asked him to be his partner. "They can't deny us to dance with each other at least once", he said, and Sasuke happily accepted.

Jive was a fast dance, not intimate as the rumba, and still, even though it took them a few attempts to work out how the steps went together (Sasuke volunteered to follow), it immediately felt like dancing. Moving in harmony, approaching each other and separating again: Soon Naruto was in a different state of mind where he felt all light and dizzy as he had the week before. He had not felt this when he had danced with any of the girls. It was Sasuke's fault, he decided, and the funny way he behaved: Sometimes smiling at him, then being all embarrassed and turning away, then again trying to reassume his usual emotionless expression, the one he had worn when he had arrived in Music Town. It no longer worked – Naruto knew now that it was just a facade. He laughed inwardly, and when the dance was over, he laughed outwardly too.

"It's supposed to be fun", he said, embracing Sasuke, and immediately letting go again, as people might be watching. "You're allowed to smile."

Sasuke had blushed, he had looked at his feet and was now looking at some point far beyond the horizon while the other teenagers left the room one after the other.

"Do you want an English Waltz too?" the dance teacher asked, and Naruto answered that they did, feeling that he had to make up to Sasuke for making him suffer through the afternoon. He was even ready to follow, if this made him happy, but the dance teacher showed them another, more symmetric position, where each of them held the other's shoulders.

"For training", he said. "The one who goes forward leads, the one who goes backwards follows."

He showed them how to do a full turn in two measures instead of only half a turn, and told them to dance in a straight line.

Giving us special attention, Naruto thought. Was it out of pity, or because of his bad conscience for making them split up, or was it because Sasuke had indeed used his beauty to persuade the dance teacher to give them some extra time? It would be just like him, being ready to do anything to secure him some extra training time.

Sasuke was still looking confused, then embarrassed and then happy. What had happened to him? Only when they were told to start and he was facing forward he was looking determined again, as if he was heading out against some invisible enemy.

"You may smile", Naruto told him again.

"You'll definitely have to learn to smile if you want to become a good dancer", the teacher said. "But for the moment it's enough if you smile at your partner."

Sasuke looked confused, muttered something incomprehensible, smiled at Naruto, blushed and turned away. He was so easy to embarrass, Naruto thought, it was really fun. He refrained from further teasing him, however, so that they could begin.

Even when they tried without music it felt completely different from dancing with a girl. Not having full responsibility all the time and being allowed to let go and follow Sasuke when he led, and then again leading him. When the dance teacher switched on the music, Naruto almost immediately fell into trance – the world was turning around Sasuke and himself while they were holding each other, standing still in the center of the world.

The dance teachers were watching them.

"We should find them some girls with talent", the woman said. "Maybe they'll enjoy it when they have competent partners."

The man shook his head, knowing that it was not just a question of talent, but he could not reply as the boys had just stopped dancing and were arguing. He went to look at what had happened.

"It was my turn to lead", Naruto said. "You were taking over."

"You were running against a wall", Sasuke replied. "I had to do something".

"You had not! I was fully in control of the situation."

They were stopped by the dance teacher's arrival.

"Next time you'll learn how to go around corners", he said. "For now it's okay, however. We want to closed now."

Silenced, Sasuke and left the dance hall.

"You heard him", Naruto said when they were half way home. "Next time they won't separate us."

Next time won't be here with all these teenagers, Sasuke thought. He sought for words to tell Naruto that they had been invited to join another dance classe but before he could begin Naruto continued.

"Else, you should be more careful. You've been talking to the dance teacher during the whole break again. You appear to be encouraging him. The other boys think he's gay."

"Sure he is."

"What makes you certain?"

"He told me that the other dance teacher, the one we had last week, is his lover."

"He told you? What do you think you are doing, asking the dance teacher about his love life and talking to him about it during the whole break?"

Protectively Naruto put his arm around Sasuke's shoulder. "Take better care of yourself in the future."

How do I tell him that I needed to talk to someone about being gay because I'm gay myself? Sasuke thought. (It was much easier to think this than it had been the first time.) He figured that this was not the right moment to tell Naruto, however.