Warning: This fic, weirdly enough, has shounen-ai (rly?) between the personas hyperactive and crazy Dobe with stoic and brooding Teme. You've been warned.
Answering the anonymous review! (though I bet that he, or she, probably won't read it, but…oh well)
To hardhead: Oh my! My first flame! XD I'm so happy. Ok, first things first.
No, I don't consider piano or violin a gay instrument. Seriously, my brother (which is straight) is a pianist. My brother-in-law (married with my sis) is a pianist. Most of the famous pianists around the globe are straights! I don't understand why such fact would deter you to pursue your interest. You could just say to them: fuck you all! I like to play piano.
Actually, I kind of get what you meant by everyone saying that they don't like learning piano or violin. Since most of the men wants to play "manly" instruments, such as guitar and or drums. Because they're instruments for rock, or something like that. But you know what? At some point of your training, you'll realize that if you want to broaden your horizons inside the music field, you'll need to learn piano a little bit, at least. Because with piano you can understand the chords, the passages and terms of composition that is better to get rather than using straightly only guitar. Not to mention that a tuned piano helps you to keen your hearing senses. I'm not saying this because I play piano, I'm taking these examples from my friends who play guitar and also my brother-in-law (who has a PhD in music) and he explained so.
Anyways, just because I'm writing a fanfiction involving classical music but with the main characters being homosexual doesn't mean that classical music equals gay. But, sadly, the loooong list of fanfics are deep, so I can't gauge how many musical fics are in straight or gay ones.
Now, I'm fairly patient person, but I can detect someone who wants to vent frustration for nothing. And I'll take your lines. "I bet you can't even play the piano"? Oh, well…whatever. I don't have any real proofs about it, but if I succeed to make people like classical music through this fic, I'm happy. Sure, I could register myself in the youtube and rub it on your face but…nah…I'm a shy person and above all, I'm lazy. :P And it's really pointless. Why did you accuse me something that you can't prove, just to instigate a snappy rebuttal? It's like you're trying to taunt me to answer accordingly like you want (oooh, feisty! XD) but sorry, I don't like violence. Woooorld peace! XD Hm…imagine all the people…living for today…(singing)
Huh…if you only like to read fanfics above 700 reviews (which clearly is not this case) and above 100k, why are you bothering to read mine? :P Oh wait…you're continuing to read it? Hm…well. I hope, really, I hope that you'd change your mind during this occurrence, but if you can't…well, at least don't vent again your strange opinion onto me. Read something else. I bet that there're a lot of good fics roaming around the internet, you don't have to waste your time to read something that you don't like, right?
But, as someone who likes to play piano (well, like you've said, proof still on pending but whateva) and likes Classical music (this time it's completely true, I mean, why would I waste my time into writing and researching something that I don't like? *thumbs up*), at least I'd want to root you to change your mind and continue to play piano regardless any opinion. Playing piano is addicting!
Next time, place your e-mail. If you're going to flame, stand your face straight up instead of fleeing so we can discuss and take good conclusions about our conversation. Well…See you! (yes, I'm not joking)
Thank you and come again!
Lesson 37 – Our Hunting Past
Petite steps, strolled inside the grand hall, struggling in a sea of people. Some recognized and tried to talk to him, others paused to give a small polite greeting, though most of them ignored his small stature, bumping heavily on his tiny shoulders.
However, he did not mind in this instant, trying frantically on searching the pianist he admired. In one of the various parties that the Uchiha corporation held to show their high esteem, his teacher optimistically informed that this renowned pianist would be present and it would beneficial if the young boy could trade some experiences with that seasoned musician. Unfortunately, he was too small to locate clearly any recognizable characteristic out of the crowd, frantically searching everywhere while he bumped with one adult or another.
He suddenly halted in the middle of his search. His ears identified a mumble of admiration that went alongside with the pianist's name, so he carefully ran towards the source, hopefully he'd find such eminent figure and talk a little bit with him.
"Mr. Zimerman." His high upbringings knotted a polite murmur in between the circle and luckily, the man looked down.
"Oh. And who'd be this young boy? What's your name?" The man smiled kindly and the young boy slowly opened his mouth to respond when a gelid voice appeared looming from behind.
"Outouto. As expected that you would run wildly inside this party. I was expecting that you'd use the well-mannered behavior that hahaue had brought you upon but I guess that you're still too clumsy to meet my expectations." Cold metallic colored eyes stared evenly, the distant altitude always marked his prepotency. Sasuke shivered unbeknownst to himself while he peeked back.
"Ah. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Itachi Uchiha. And who'd be this young boy? Your younger brother?" The pianist shook Itachi's hands as the long-haired brunet responded with an apathetic gaze.
"Yes. He's Sasuke Uchiha. Well, outouto, at least show the minimum required of gracefulness and introduce yourself." Gelid tone exhaled, not wasting a moment o spare a recognizable glance towards the young boy.
"Ah…Sasuke Uchiha. I've heard that he's the sole student from Mr. Kakashi too. So young and I'm already having great expectations to you. One day I believe you'll be a great pianist, right?" The famous pianist were motioning his hand to give an affectionate pat when all members of the circle heard a condescend scoff.
"Don't misplace such expectations towards someone that doesn't have the slightest aptitude towards piano. It'd be an offence to your image, Mr. Zimerman." And even though that imperious voice was dripping with degradation, Sasuke couldn't stop each syllable escaping through thin lips.
His hands began to sweat around his palm, so he grabbed fiercely the seams of his perfectly ironed pants.
"Why…I…see." The pianist coughed slightly uncomfortably. "But why you'd assume such conclusion? Your little brother is still young, there's no guarantee in which kind of pianist he will become." He tried to clarify.
"…Ah." Slowly crawling on his skin, the very beginning of verbal bullying. "Obviously, you didn't hear Sasuke playing at all to say something like that. He's hopeless."
Everyone around the siblings started to fidget with uncertainty, no one even dared to bate a blink.
"He doesn't have any expression, his style is clumsy. Every music he plays is soulless." Itachi recited with precision, the words rolling so fluidly revealing a foreboding forlorn.
"The articulation of his fingers are way behind compared to other children of his age, he can't reach large spaces and the position of his wrist is incorrectly therefore he makes so many basic mistakes that it is unsightly to hear that hideous music."
A cold weight settled on his stomach, as his vision twisted and blurred, all his blood draining out of his face.
"He doesn't even know how to gauge the dynamics, he uses pedal excessively, he needs to improve on his interpretation, his play is too mechanic and lack any trace of humanity. Clearly, a fail—"
"Aniki!" A sudden interruption echoed in between. His lips trembled from the bitter taste lodged on his throat, but nothing compared to the numb gathering around his legs.
However, all his desperation was purposely ignored when matched eyes gazed icily at him and his older brother spoke:
"What? Are you accusing me that everything that I pointed was incorrect?"
The young brunet only attempted to clear his foggy mind, to give any kind reasonable answer. That unfriendly stare was engulfing his child mind that he couldn't dare to move a breath, to tiny trapped inside that black vortex.
"…See. So, let's go Mr. Zimerman, we have other more important things to attend." Itachi unhurriedly stepped forward, as many other guests followed behind, perplexed.
The pianist only shot a sympathetic glance towards the small child and patted slightly his head before going away.
But Sasuke was already beyond any repair or redemption, his young mind already tainted from venomous resentment.
I hate him.
I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!
Sasuke cupped his hand towards his mouth and heaved a polite yawn, as he arrived at his mentor's house. They still have some several months left to train, however, such fact didn't deter Kakashi to demand early appearance at the studio. They were glad that his teacher would be strict in deemed necessity, however, lately Sasuke believed that he didn't have any wink of good sleep.
Another yawn escaped from the stoic teen and he gingerly massaged the back of his neck, sighing all the while. He used all night reading Bach's score as well as Beethoven Sonata's that he lost track of time and slept late. Though at least this effort was worthwhile since today—
All his trains of thought halted when he realized that another poor soul also fell on the vicious clutches of a ruthless teacher and was heavily paying its consequences.
"Snoooooooooreeeeeeeee…." A splash of spiky golden color was sprawled on the kitchen's table and Sasuke could visibly notice that there was a puddle of drool accumulating on the smooth surface.
Shaking his head in mild amusement, Sasuke came closer to observe the disaster generated from the dobe. Obviously, the shaggy blond strands did nothing but to emphasize his clumsy disposition, as well as his arms hanging open wide through the tabe. Streams of drool flowed from the rather open mouth destroying any attempt of tentative adorable feature, as the blond snored (quite unabashedly too) and mumbled incoherent words. All this scenario would be completely mocked in any circumstances, if wasn't the fact that this trait certainly portrayed Naruto's personality and the brunet was having urges to run his fingers on that silky golden hair…
What the hell?!
"Ow!" Naruto promptly blinked wide when he felt a heavy bonking on his head. "Wha?! Aliens from Mars invaded Tokyo?!"
His friend berated a quirked eyebrow to him back. The blond scratched the back of his head embarrassed. "Eh hehehehe…last night's movie content…" Then, he spotted the lump on his hair. "Teme, why did ya hit me so strongly?"
Sasuke opted to glare 'I don't know what you have done to me, but it must be absolutely your fault.' His friend whined.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! I didn't do anything wrong, you Baaa—" Naruto's cursing was brutally interrupted by a very large and unabridged yawn.
"Usuratonkachi." Sasuke threw a nearby napkin which Naruto readily used to clean up the table.
"Man…and I was having a good nap too…" He pouted. "I don't understand, what did I do to you to wake me up…ass—" Another yawn. "hmmm…" He wearily rubbed his eyelids, another hand sustaining his chin. " 'm too tired…"
At seeing his friend's slump state slowly lodged a guilty feeling on his gut, which Sasuke promptly squashed with a scowl. That dobe should take care of himself instead of wearing himself out and then end up sleeping carelessly, resulting some awkward cramp on his neck that may impair his performance in piano. The idiot should feel aware that his body needs to be in top condition if he wanted to play decently, anyways.
"Dobe, I can see that you're already snoozing." The brunet pointed out.
"Huh?" Bleary azure eyes interrupted his hazy state in mid-turn. "Mmmm…train'd tchu much…" The blond teen tried rub out the drowsiness from his system only to result another jaw-popping yawn.
"Naruto, what I've said about…" Sasuke snapped.
"No, I didn't train too much like you guys kept pestering those days." The Uchiha heard a grumble of; 'I'm not a goddamn porcelain doll dammit' but ignored with a roll of eyes. "It's just that I have to train piano, have school and need to work too…it can't be helped."
"Then ask Tsunade-san to give you some more days off-work, I'm sure she'll gladly agree with that."
Naruto frowned. "That old hag did give me some days to rest, even if I really didn't need it though." There was another added muttering of; 'god, that frikkin' punch almost made me puke all my lunch' however this time, Sasuke decided that he really didn't want to understand the whole concept.
"It's better this way. I don't want to see my student fainting on my precious piano again, after all." A third voice intruded inside and both of Kakashi's students heaved a small polite bow to him. "Good morning, Sasuke, Naruto. So, let's start our class."
Growwwwwwllll…A loud rumbling interrupted their stride and all the eyes focused on the flushed whiskered face.
"Errrr…sorry, I still didn't eat my breakfast yet…" The blond lightly scratched his stomach with a sheepish grin.
"Alright…I'll ask the maids to prepare you some pancakes for you." Kakshi ruffled the spiky bundle of hair and smiled. "I still need to attend some other things anyways, it'd do you both good to take a small break from piano."
Tap. Tap. Sasuke ignored while he ate another piece of fluffy brown texture coated with blueberry jelly.
Tap…Taptaptaptaptap, taaaaaaaaaaap. Tap……tap. The brunet sighed, while he gulped another mouthful of coffee.
Tap tap tap tap. Ta-tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Grunting, he closed his onyx eyes in a vain attempt of block that irritating sound and bit another part of his pancake.
Taaaaaap, taaaaaap, tap, tap, tap…tap…tap…As his breakfast had regrettably ended, Sasuke found himself that his left eye was beginning to twitch from the insufferable noise echoing on the kitchen.
Tap. Twitch. Tap tap. Twitch twitch. Taaap tap taaap. Twich twitch twitch.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap ta—
"Hey! Why did ya tried to punch me all of a sudden, you Bastard?!" Naruto complained while he ducked the aimed fist in a knick of time.
"You're the one who should stop tapping on the table, it's irritating." Sasuke growled in reprimand.
However, the obnoxious teen decided to return his statement with a very mature and sensible response. "Bleeeeeh…" Naruto blew a raspberry while his fingers still moved swiftly through them expanse of the wooden surface. "I was training while you were eating breakfast. Just making sure that I didn't forget the notes from Bach's Prelude."
"Hn." The stoic boy grabbed the orange juice jar and poured a small amount in his cup.
"Hey, I bet that you won't even recognize this music I'm tapping right now!" Amused blue eyes flashed in taunting rivalry as he played a small passage of the music.
The onyx hue only flickered for a short period of seconds before Sasuke grunted smugly. "Dumbass, obviously it's Chopin Etudes no. 3."
"Eh? How did ya guessed so quickly about it?" Naruto paused his performance to stare befuddled to his friend.
"Dobe, this music is too obvious to be recognized, it's pathetic." Satisfied with the pout that he received in response, Sasuke also tapped some unrecognizable motion on the table. "If you want something challenging, how about this?"
"Bah, it's Mozart's Rondo, that it was supposed t be mine and you stole it for the contest. Guess this!" His right hand pressed a complex combination of notes, while the left hand moved smoothly—
"Chopin Revolutionary music. Moron." When inquiry cerulean eyes shot to his direction Sasuke replied. "It's pretty obvious since you hammer idiotically on the table in the same way that you violated Kakashi-sensei's poor piano when you play this score."
"Hey!"
"Try guessing this." Slender ivory fingers tapped with precision across the table and a smirk, which was almost reaching borderline to a smile, lifted on Sasuke's lips while he obtained the sufficient amount of concentration illuminating through Naruto's face.
Mismatched eyes observed the interaction from afar and he didn't bother to hide the fondness swelling on his heart when he saw his students. If anyone else examined Sasuke's behavior, they wouldn't be able to detect anything out of ordinary from that stoic expression, except a tint of arrogance quirking up on his lips.
Nevertheless, as Kakashi had long years of correlation with his dark-haired student, he naturally could identify a soft affection brightening on his aristocratic face, as well as…dare he would risk to say it, a real smile primed shyly on his eyes. It's been long that he saw such juvenile expression, instead of Sasuke forcing himself to mature up. Kakashi shook his head. No, he probably never saw his student behaving accordingly as a teenager or child, there hanged a perpetual weigh looming on his shoulders that the Uchiha required to carry around.
However, it almost appeared today that Sasuke chose to temporarily abandon such weigh for some fleeting seconds and indulge himself to be a normal teen. Moreover, Kakashi could detect that in each passage of time, the so-called weigh was gradually lessening as Sasuke's eyes stared with reduced solemn. Slowly opening the gates of his soul as rays of light filtered inside.
The same statement could be returned to Naruto. Although this time Kakashi hadn't have extended years of tutoring the blond boy, he could perceive a guarded blanket behind many toothy grins he witnessed from Naruto at the start. Something like he always drew a limit between all his friends and colleagues, shushing out any attempt of getting more intimate. But now, looking at the apparent ordinary occurrence, however, such moment was equally breathtaking as both of the young man interacted like they knew each other since immemorial times. There wasn't any trace of recoil emitted from the azure eyes.
Noticing all of those subtle differences, growing attachment as their fortress silently melted away gave Kakashi a strange sense of pride. Who cares if they succeeded on improving their performance in piano if they failed to grow up as human beings? He was glad that his students finally found their points in common and coped to cultivate their budding relationship into the next levels. The value of friendship.
Kakashi sighed, abhorring the moment that he'll disrupt this feeling.
"I'm back." The teacher entered in the room as both of the young men gazed back at him. "We're starting the class now." The boys nodded in response and stood up to move to the studio when Kakashi briefly interrupted.
"There's another problem…Sasuke." Not wasting his time to wait an inquiry from the brunet, he proceeded. "There was an appointment this afternoon that they had to shift to this morning. So…today I'm afraid we can't go." Kakashi, then, winced at the unnamed frown marring on the ivory face, all the emotions locking layer per layer inside the apparent neutral expression.
Until…
"It's okay. We still have afternoon, right?" Sasuke murmured, one of his arms sliding to softly push his bewildered classmate forward.
The teacher also had his couple minutes of perplexed blinking, though he planted carefully steps on the field, muttering quietly. "Yes…we do have afternoon but…are you sure?"
The Uchiha shrugged nonchalantly. "Sure, why not?"
"Huh…" Naruto also tried to had his share of conversation. "What exactly are you guys talking about? Go where?"
"Today…" Sasuke paused to weigh his words and carefully posted. "Is the anniversary of my uncle's death. Since Kakashi-sensei used to be his friend, we always went together to pray at his grave."
"…oh." Naruto shifted uncomfortably instead, surely not expecting that kind of gloomy answer.
Sasuke though, shook his head. "Don't worry about it, it's a routine that we acquired throughout those years and I'm glad that I have this time to talk to my uncle. Kakashi-sensei and I stops by some other days of these years to visit him whenever we can."
"Yes. It's good to check from time to time if we need to clean up the grave or remove the weeds. And update the conversations too, of course." Kakashi also showed his share of indulgent grin even though their students could see a slight strain on his face.
"I see. But why Kakashi-sensei asked if it's fine going on afternoon?" Naruto asked innocently.
Another pause stretched to choose carefully his words until the brunet muttered somewhat untroubled. "We always went in the morning. It'd be the first time we'll go in the afternoon."
"Oh. 'zzat all?" Naruto blinked at the unexpected ordinary answer and grinned instead. "I'm sure that your uncle wouldn't mind if you change your habit every once in a while. Right?"
"…Hn."
Kakashi was positively surprised at the unfolding events.
"Hey hey hey fox child." Voices condemned him. Sneered at him. "Ugly brat, why don't ya remove your ugly face from our sight and go cry for mama?" They laughed. "Oh right. You don't have a mother, do you? She abandoned you."
The young boy snarled. "Shaddap! My mom went to heaven, she went to see my pop! And I have a new pop too, he's taking care of me until mom return from her trip!"
They cackled in malicious tone. "Idiot! Your mom won't return anymore, the adults say that nobody wants to go back to their home when heaven is a good place! Nobody wants you!"
"It's a lie!" His petite body struggled to grab their clothes and his chubby hands flayed to scratch his opponents arms, snarling all the time.
"My mom said that his mom must be a prostitute, ya know." One of them made a condescend snort laced with arrogance.
"Wha..zzat…prosh…ute?" Another asked while the blond tried to free his arms.
"A bad person. Mom said that his mom never stayed longer than one year everywhere, so she probably was escaping from someone so it's very strange." The bully scoffed. "Heaven must be another place where she escaped but she leaved you behind this time because she hates you!"
"She don't hate me, she don't!" The struggling boy shrieked. "Take that back, take THAT BACK!" He promptly bit hard one of the arms of his captures receiving a howl of pain in return and began punching aimlessly. All the boys snarled in return and began fighting with him though what the whiskered boy lacked in strength, he enforced with stubborn determination.
"Here it is, your child back. We hope that next time you should feel aware of your son violent tendencies and educate him decently." One of the adults, in the end, intervened in between and brought the blond boy home. A scarred man humbly bowed in apology and closed noiselessly the door afterwards, grabbing the first-aid kit and began attending his wounds.
"Why did you have to fight with those boys Naruto? Again?" He muttered while he rolled some gauze around his feet and the child protested in return.
"But! But! They said bad things about mom!"
"Still, there was no need to answer them back. They were saying nonsense, you shouldn't listen to them."
"But—! Iruka-sensei!"
"Naruto…why should I do from now on…? I can't show that I'm not taking good care of you…now what? How am I going to explain those wounds…?" Iruka furrowed his eyebrows in apprehension before sighing tiredly.
And the young cerulean eyes recognized that expression. Trouble. He's giving to Iruka-sensei more trouble. What if Iruka-sensei started to hate him because of this mistake? What if Iruka-sensei gets tired of taking care of him?
…what if Iruka-sensei changes his mind and won't ever want him after all?
If he changes himself, if he becomes the child that Iruka-sensei wants, he would be fine then, right? If he stopped being the troublemaker and disobedient boy, Iruka-sensei won't abandon him, right?
Don't hate me…don't abandon me!
A loud clattering sound of train moving smoothly broke Naruto from his daydream.
"What…? It's been long that I remembered about this…" He rubbed again his eyelids before blinking for a couple of seconds. "I wonder why I remembered such thing…"
He set his eyes to nowhere, watching the shifting landscape from afar. "Come to think about it…it had already passed one month from the date of my mom's death…But going to her grave…maybe…I can't risk that." Naruto sighed tiredly as he exited the station and arrived at the appointed place.
After another grandiose gates opened at his presence and the blond entered inside, there was a tall, long-haired man waiting for his arrival.
"Ah…huh…" He looked at the piece of paper on his hand. "Orochimaru-san. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi's student. I believe that Kakashi-sensei explained about my situation, right?"
The long-haired man only licked maliciously (with a tongue that deemed too long for his standards) and hissed. "Sssssure. Kakashi-kun sssssaid e-ve-ry thing in detail to me. It'll be my pleassssssssure to help you,Uzumaki-kun." Said the man while his eyes roamed unrestrictedly all over the tanned body.
Naruto felt a cold shiver running through his spine. This lecherous stare, from his bar's and cafe's experiences with random clients, certainly resumed to only one word.
Trouble.
"Sasuke, are you s—"
"For the last time, Kakashi-sensei, yes, I'm sure." The brunet grunted slightly annoyed as they climbed upstairs.
"Well…never hurt to ask again. Especially since you and your brother have a long history of bickering." Kakashi's eyes carefully gauged Sasuke's reaction, and, for his relief, there passed briefly a bitterness on his face before morphing to a skeptical frown.
"I wouldn't mind. I mean…" They momentarily halted their steps to rest. "There'll be a day when all of what is happening between us will get tiring. And pointless. If aniki cease all the struggles…I wouldn't mind stopping mine."
"Then…does that means you forgive him?" Kakashi warily placed his hopeful ton at bay.
"No…I'm not such a good person that will be able to forgive him. So fast." They resumed their stroll before turning right. "But I'm willing to forget. For now. If this continues well…then…then…"
They quickly spotted a ponytailed dark-haired man squatted in front of a tombstone while another man, with a bluish color on his skin, stood at his side.
"Aniki." Obviously, Sasuke's call was something totally unexpected from Itachi's part, as the older Uchiha widened his eyes at Sasuke's presence. "Hoshigaki." This time, the short-haired brunet spat with disgust while the other shark-featured man snorted dismayed.
"Outouto." When Itachi flexed his jaw, preparing to ask further, he spotted a grey-haired annoyance behind his young brother and glared darkly. "Hatake."
"Yoh." Kakashi smoothly ignored the unfriendly gaze and used his copyrighted laidback smile instead.
"What are you doing here?" Itachi asked and the student and his teacher didn't know if he was asking the both of them or just Kakashi.
"Why else? We're here to visit uncle Obito, obviously." Sasuke cut in between and put some incenses next to Itachi's lit ones.
"…going to talk with him?" The oldest Uchiha stood up and left some private space to Sasuke, whom he gladly accepted as he united his palms to pray.
"Yes. I have to update my conversations with him, after all." Sasuke spoke.
"I see. Well…" Itachi shot another hateful gaze at Kakashi and said. "There's still another problems in the company that I should attend. I'll leave for you to talk freely with our uncle, outouto."
"…" Young graphite eyes peered over the stony tablet until Sasuke ended his prayer and laid his hands to rest on his lap. "Thank you."
Since Itachi halted all his actions to stare befuddled towards his brother, it clearly showed that Sasuke's words left him completely bewildered. After some awkward stretched silence at the graveyard, he cleared his throat and moved along. "Aaa."
Sasuke acknowledged Itachi's departure with a polite nod.
"Uncle Obito." He stared evenly at the carved name in front of him. "I guess that since it's been long that I've talked to you, you'll need to listen attentively my short summary." Sasuke involuntarily curled a haughty smirk. "I've met an annoying Dobe."
The smirk slowly lifted to a real smile. "Strange. I think you'd like to meet him someday. He's someone that you probably would identify yourself with him."
"Already finished your speech?" Kakashi asked while he placed some flowers around the tombstone.
"Hn." His student shrugged his shoulders. Laughing, the mentor patted roughly on the top of the grave and declared:
"Hey Obito, both of your nephews are still the stoic, unemotional Uchihas that you always knew. I'm still impressed from the fact that you all share the same blood you know." Kakashi succinctly ignored another Uchiha Glare ® aimed to him. "But aside that, we're all trying hard to live our life to the fullest, like you've always wished for."
"…hn." The teenager looked at his wrist watch and frowned. "Maybe I should give a call to Sarutobi-ojiisan and warn that I may arrive late to Naruto's recital. I took too much time being here."
"Oh? But today is not Sarutobi-san's time to appraise Naruto's performance, have you forgotten? Today is the first day to meet another judge." His mentor answered.
Kakashi always thought that it was impossible, but he succeeded to see the milky skin pale even further. "You mean…Orochi…" Sasuke's words died on his throat.
"Yes…well, I wonder if they already started the class now…" And the mismatched eyes stared unimpressed towards the blank space that previously, at some milliseconds before, laid his student presence. He shook absentmindedly his head. "There's no need to be that desperate…"
Fifteen minutes, thirty seconds and his finger smashing repeatedly on the bell expressed only the tip of the iceberg of Sasuke's anxiety. His ingenious mind also provided some fertile tragedies that would befall to his friend, as he paced around the train, restlessly.
Whatever. If that slimy, perverted, dirty old-man dared to make one wrong move on Naruto, consequences be damned, he's going to ram a seething punch through that lecherous face so this type of man would be extinguished from his life once and for all.
The butler that attended his arrival glanced briefly with annoyance towards the brooding brunet only to be silenced with another set of efficient Uchiha Glare ®. Sasuke heard a frightened whimper at his back though he didn't have the time to dwell upon it, there was a rescue mission to fulfill and he had to be swift to aid the Dobe.
Doors were ruthlessly opened by him and Sasuke was already ready to beat Orochimaru into a unrecognizable pulp when…
"Oh! Hey, Sasuke, you've arrived!" A sunny beam spotted in the middle of the room, completely unblemished and unscarred.
Huh? Naruto promptly hopped off from his piano sit to greet his friend.
"Usuratonkachi." Scrutinized onyx eyes tried to survey any possible damage but to his relief, there wasn't any evident criminal residue. He also pushed aside the urge to confirm physically Naruto's well being with his hands because, well…there's some limits.
"Well, Orochimaru-san, I guess our class ended for today, right?" The blond asked towards the renowned pianist and to Sasuke's further confusion, the old man easily dismissed Naruto instead of discouraging to extend his visit.
"Yesss…well…I guessss. Ssssee you…next week." From Orochimaru's tone of finality, it clearly implied that if depended solely on his side…there wouldn't be any next week.
"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto picked up his scores and merrily placed in his backpack, pushing the puzzled Uchiha outside the house. "See you later!" He shouted towards his back and only heard a disgruntled mutter in return.
When they arrived at the train station, Sasuke finally snapped from his stupor. "How? What did you do? What happened?" Question marks lifted around the usual expressionless face.
"What do you mean, what happened? Nothing happened!" The blond also returned the perplex state with a quirked eyebrow.
"Exactly! Nothing happened! How the…" And for the second time of the day, the words died on Sasuke's throat.
"Oh." A flash of blinding mischievous grin. "I said that I'm not virgin!"
Sasuke choked from his own saliva. "What?" He almost squawked.
"Yeah, well…since I work on Jiraiya-jiichan bar and Tsunade-baabaa café, I'm used to meet all kinds of people ya know." Naruto slowly stroked his chin in a failed impersonation of a wise old man. "So I kinda recognized the pattern of each of 'em, then…well, Orochimaru seems the kind that would have this kink of young innocent men."
…huh. Whoa.
"So, when I said that I'm…experienced enough, he dropped all the flirting and appraised seriously my play. Man…for some slimy old man, he's quite ruthless on evaluation…"
Sasuke finally returned the statement with a slight gaped jaw.
"If I knew that the solution was that simple, I'd have done millenniums ago…" He concluded in distraught.
A tanned body roamed all over his house looking for some lost thing, searching every uncommon spot through a long period of hours. Clothes flied everywhere, cabinets were detached from the closets and the normal appearance bedroom looked more chaotic than the regular days.
In the middle of the night, a joyful shout reverberated through the walls, Naruto found a wooden tablet placed inside a baggy case and took it to a better place.
"Huh…hey mom. Long time no see. Sorry for the mess." He sheepishly scratched the back of his golden hair and inhaled till the limits of his lungs. "I guess it's been long that we've talked, huh?" He gazed guiltily at the Japanese calligraphy and heaved a sigh. "Well…there's a lot to say so be prepared to hear allll night."
Unbeknownst to himself his lips darted a huge grin. "You know…I've met an arrogant Bastard…"
Explanation:
Err…to anyone who didn't understand Sasuke and Naruto guessing game I'll explain. Actually, I already put in chap 5, but maybe you guys wouldn't remember about it…
Readers: you put something 32 chapters ago and expect us to remember it?!
Errrr…Ok, so…like I've said, when there's a point in which a pianist already got used to play piano throughout his long years, he already can picture a piano on his head (each note, dynamics and its weight) and can "practice" in any smooth surface if he desires so. Since Sasuke and Naruto have classes together, they are already used to know the recognizable passages of their music, therefore they can see the movements of the hands and guess what the other one is playing. Well, just like that. XD
Oh yeah, another thing that probably the Western culture is not used to it, but I'm not sure, since I was raised in a Oriental society, is the conversation with their deceased people. Huh…it's not like we believe that all of their deceased people became ghosts and therefore we're talking to their ghosts, is just that when someone dies and go to…the other plan…? Huh…they're still watching us from above and taking care of us, like some kind of ancestors thingie. Therefore we talk to them, not that we're expecting them to answer in return, is just a form of updating the occurrences of our lives to them…something like that.
Author notes: ouuuuuuuch…just realized that I'm two chapters behind the planned plot. Dammit. Why the heck do I keep writing gigantic stuff?
Sorry people for the late update. Life (Katekyo Hitman Reborn and 5927) got in the way…cough cough.
Did you know something that made me incredibly happy? That I've scored on portraying Hinata's personality in this fic, compared to the latest chapters. :D Ok, stepping aside the really…huh…(doesn't want to waste her breath on cursing) NaruHina, it's cool to see that almost all Hinata's words and growth matched in TMO2. (feeling very proud) Dang it, I should be a clairvoyant. XD Probably would earn lot more money then.