Sasuke didn't know why he agreed to walk with the blond haired idiot, but he did. Naruto seemed to be excited about something, but he also kept some space away from the raven. Sasuke briefly wondered if something was wrong, but he kept quiet.
Naruto's classroom was a couple of feet away, so the two of them stopped to wait for Naruto to pull out whatever he wanted to show Sasuke.
"Okay, so..." He dug into his bag and pulled out his test. "Ta da! A 90!"
Sasuke's mouth opened slightly and took the paper in his hands. A 90 was outstanding for someone like Naruto, who could barely focus in a single class. He read through it and smirked when he noticed that Naruto had used some of the basic methods that Sasuke had taught him.
"Wow, I didn't.. expect results this fast."
"I know right? Thank you so much for helping me out, Sasuke-bastard."
Sasuke rolled his eyes in amusement. He knew now that Naruto's nicknames for him were just that. Nicknames. It caused a whirling feeling in his stomach that he couldn't quite name, but he decided that he liked it.
"Sasuke-bastard? You just love to use nicknames, huh?"
"Shut up and just accept my gratitude, asshole!"
The black haired teen smirked as a short huff of air was exhaled through his nose. "Fine. You're welcome."
Naruto flashed a grin in his direction and pushed the crumpled piece of paper into his bag. Sasuke's eyes were a bit warmer than usual as he observed Naruto's pride in himself.
Soon enough, the late bell rang and Naruto waved, running off to his next class. Sasuke stood in the hallway and decided to take a stroll around the school. He wasn't really new anymore, everyone was beginning to get used to him as this was pretty much almost his third week of school. He noticed the awards on display and decided to check them out.
Pictures of teams and individuals were arranged neatly on the shelves. A lot of them were frames of Itachi when he was younger. He had the same expression in every one of those pictures, a passive, yet cold and detached look as he held up his award. Itachi was a very good actor, but his only flaw was that Sasuke could see through every one of his facades. All of a sudden, Sasuke felt lightheaded and nauseated, and ripped his gaze away from the glass.
An image of Naruto replaced Itachi's, which caught Sasuke off guard. His eyes widened at the fact that he was now getting closer to the blond, which caused a thrill to rush through his being. Was he making a friend? He didn't know if he felt a thrill of excitement or terror, so he figured it was both.
An uncertain feeling also made its way to him. What if something went wrong? Why was he even thinking of the blond? His heart began to beat a little faster than usual as Sasuke flushed. He blamed the sensation on him being high and walked to an empty art room, where three people sat laughing with each other.
The hot-pink haired girl was the first to notice him standing by the door. The other two noticed right after she did, and turned to look at him as well.
"Say, Karin, isn't that your-"
"Shut the fuck up!" The girl, Karin, punched the white haired guy in the face without hesitation. The white haired boy grunted in pain.
"Calm down, you two," the tall, broad shouldered male sitting beside them gave Sasuke a welcoming look. "Are you lost?"
"Uh.. No. I'm just looking for a place to kill time in."
The white haired kid smirked and jumped off the desk he was sitting atop and walked over to Sasuke, patting him on the shoulder.
"Well, you can join us if you want. I'm Suigetsu."
Sasuke gave Suigetsu a hesitant look before allowing himself to be led over to the other three. Karin's face was as pink as her hair as he took a seat a foot or so away from her. Suigetsu gave her a knowing smirk and sat next to Sasuke.
"So, you're Sasuke Uchiha, right?"
"Yeah, I am."
"Nice meeting you, these two are Karin and Juugo. Karin's a crazy bitch, but she's smart, and Juugo's actually pretty chill unless you get on his bad side. Then he'll go batshit insane."
Karin shot Suigetsu a vicious look while Juugo shrugged. Suigetsu's description of them was actually pretty spot on.
Sasuke nodded and pulled out his book and some paper. Suigetsu leaned behind him to check it out. "So, Sasuke, tell us a bit about yourself."
"No." Sasuke replied flatly.
Suigetsu grinned while the other two also smiled in their own ways. "I like you. Unfiltered and straight to the point."
Karin rolled her eyes, though they held no malice behind them. "Chill out, Sui. He clearly doesn't want to be around us."
Sasuke paid no attention to what the others were babbling on about. So far, they didn't seem that bad, but he was still adamant on remaining unknown and alone. He gave Juugo a quick glance. He decided that he was content with the orange haired teenager. Juugo noticed that Sasuke was looking at him, but he didn't start any conversation. Sasuke wondered how he became friends with the other two.
"Say, Sasuke."
He turned to Suigetsu, who had a wicked grin on his face. "Do you think Karin's hot?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and went back to burying his nose in his book while Karin shrieked and continued to smack the shit out of Suigetsu, who laughed and dodged whenever he could. Sasuke ended up getting annoyed at the noise and stood up, silently leaving as the others watched.
The raven didn't want to screw up and become acquainted with any more people. Friendships were unnecessary and started unnecessary drama, and he'd already made a mistake by becoming acquainted with Naruto. He scowled as he dragged himself to the library. He wondered why he hadn't thought of going there first.
As soon as he reached the library, Sasuke's eyes widened when he realized he'd left his messenger bag in the art room. Damn it! Sasuke couldn't believe he'd made such a careless mistake. He sighed and walked back downstairs, stopping every once in a while to script out what he'd do. He noticed that Kakashi was walking with his eyes glued to his phone. That earned a smirk from Sasuke, who knew exactly who the silver haired teacher was talking to.
"Oi, Kakashi."
Kakashi's head jerked up as he clearly typed an excuse to leave to Iruka and shoved his phone in his pocket. "Sasuke, hey."
"Who was that? Your boyfriend?"
Kakashi chuckled and rolled his eye. "No. Well, not yet at least."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You're thinking of asking him out?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure. He's clearly got the hots for me, so most likely."
Sasuke smirked, remembering Iruka's face vividly flushing whenever he was next to Kakashi. He opened his mouth to tease Kakashi, but was cut off by an embarrassing question.
"What about you? Are you thinking about dating a certain blond?"
"What the fuck, Hatake! No, you pervert."
"Hey, language. And I'm just saying, you two argue like a married couple."
Sasuke flushed and turned away. "Shut up. We're not even friends, and I would rather die than be friends with that moron."
Kakashi ruffled Sasuke's hair, messing up the way he'd fixed his dark hair that morning. Sasuke scowled and pulled his head away from the adult. Kakashi was too weird sometimes, but he guessed it was okay.
But him and Naruto? Sasuke wondered where he got that from. Kakashi waved and broke Sasuke out of his thoughts, telling him he had to be somewhere. Sasuke nodded and continued to walk towards the art room when he heard a loud shout.
"Juugo! No!"
A crash along with loud thumps could be heard from the hallway to the left, and Sasuke sped to see what was going on. Sure enough, Juugo stood there, pinning some kid onto the wall. Before anyone could say anything, the smaller, unfortunate guy got body slammed onto the hard floor. Karin and Suigetsu were behind him, failing to calm him down.
Sasuke was unable to sneak past them to get his items, but he didn't want to interfere. His body was already at risk by being feet away from the seemingly berserk male.
Before he could do anything, Juugo's eyes settled on him. Sasuke stood there, frozen. Juugo's expression was wild and out of control. It reminded Sasuke of himself when he went through his hating-Itachi-to-the-point-of-wanting-to-kill phase. Yeah, Sasuke's anger levels towards Itachi during middle school were through the roof. He remembered the stares his older brother would give him that frightened him enough to calm down.
Sasuke took in a deep breath and looked into Juugo's eyes, doing his best to mimic Itachi. If this worked, he decided that he wouldn't complain about Itachi for the rest of the day. Or two days, depending on how it went.
Juugo's body shockingly remained still as he met eyes with Sasuke. Sasuke breathed in and out slowly, not wavering when it came to showing Juugo who was really in charge. He didn't need to look at the mirror to know that his expression was different from Itachi's. There was no fear in Juugo's eyes.
The muscular teen let go of the poor kid, who glared weakly and ran off to pretend nothing had happened. Juugo's face went from still to dejected as he looked down at his feet. Suigetsu and Karin were both gaping in shock before rushing over to Juugo and asking if he was alright. Sasuke began to walk stoically to the art room, but felt his arm being grabbed by a large hand.
He turned around in annoyance and met Juugo's gaze, who let go right after. "Thank you... But how?"
Sasuke turned around. "What?"
"How.. Did you do that?"
Sasuke shrugged. "I just looked at you. I didn't really think, I just did."
Suigetsu grinned. "I think we just found you a new Kimimaro, Juu."
Juugo looked pensive, but he ended up nodding.
"You have no idea how powerful that is, Sasuke. It's like, a talent or something," Suigetsu added.
"I don't think staring counts as a talent."
"It's not just staring, though! It's like.. Hypnosis."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and walked into the art room, noticing that the others followed him inside.
"So who's Kimimaro?" Sasuke asked.
Suigetsu flashed him a boxy smile and sat on top of a table. Karin sat with her legs crossed on a chair nearby while Juugo stood calmly.
"Kimimaro was my foster brother," said Juugo.
Sasuke nodded and sat down. He didn't miss the word was , but he made no comment on it, waiting for Juugo to continue.
"I was adopted by his family when I was 8. He was the only person that could calm me down whenever I..." He stopped, thinking of a good way to describe his violent tendencies. ".. Lost control."
"Is it normal for you to lose control?" Sasuke asked carefully.
"Yeah. When he's calm he's actually a very gentle person," Karin answered. "But when he gets angry, he gets angry."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes and sat back, crossing his arms. He already knew what was going to happen now. They were going to follow him around, since Juugo needed a new anchor. The anchor in question sighed and accepted his fate. They seemed to be loyal enough, anyway, so he decided to humor them.
"So, you gonna tell us more about yourself now?" Suigetsu asked.
"Hn."
"Hn?"
"... Fine. What do you want to know?"
"Mm, just the basics so we could get an idea of what you're like."
"Well... I'm Sasuke, my blood type is AB, and I like tomatoes and onigiri. I also make origami in my free time." He lazily motioned to a little blue bird he made while they talked.
"Ooh, that's super cool. I'm on the swimming team and Juugo here is on the basketball team. Karin sings and does karate."
"Basketball..." Sasuke stopped himself, wondering if he should really ask the question he was thinking of asking. "Do you know.. Naruto Uzumaki?" He continued.
"Yes," replied Juugo. "He's the best on the team."
"What's he like?" Sasuke asked, curious to find out more. He didn't know why something like this piqued his interest, and he didn't want to figure it out. Something about what Kakashi said earlier unsettled him to a great extent.
"He's another one of those loud and self-absorbed popular kids." Karin answered this time, rolling her eyes.
"Isn't he your cousin or something?" Suigetsu asked.
"Hell if I know. Not everyone with the same last name is related, dumbass."
Suigetsu rolled his eyes at the sudden hostility. Sasuke thought about her description for a moment and wondered why he was internally defending Naruto.
The bell rang a minute or two later, and they all stood. Suigetsu stretched before wrapping his arm around Sasuke's shoulder. "So, which class do you have now, paper boy?"
Sasuke glared at the nickname. "Physics."
"Really? With who?"
"Orochimaru."
"Damn, you were in my Physics class and I had no idea."
"I'm pretty quiet."
"Trust me, we can tell," said Karin.
They all walked out of the room as kids began to flood the hallways. Juugo was the first to split away from them, and Karin had left to drama class when they reached the second floor. Sasuke and Suigetsu were almost at physics class when a familiar blond caught his eye. Naruto was laughing and fooling around with some other people, goofing off until he met Sasuke's eyes.
"Hey, friend!"
Sasuke froze. Friend? Suigetsu stopped right after him and turned back, confused. Sasuke felt the gears turning around in his own head. Naruto just called him his friend.
No one just greeted people as their friend. Or at least Sasuke didn't. And Sasuke was pretty much known for being antisocial. Maybe Naruto called everyone he knew his friend. Maybe that was why he had so many. So did he think of Sasuke as a friend? Was he joking? Had all of his interactions with Sasuke been a running joke? Did Naruto really even consider him as a-
"Sasuke?"
Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts and looked up at Suigetsu. "What?"
"You okay, dude? You completely zoned out."
Sasuke nodded and began to walk again. Naruto was going to be the death of him, making him overthink like that. The raven wondered why he felt so conflicted over Naruto. Nothing seemed to go right with the two of them. Suigetsu gave Sasuke a look of concern before following him.
Orochimaru gave the two teens a chilling smile as they walked inside of the classroom. So far, the creepy teacher wasn't being as creepy as Sasuke expected him to be, but still.
Halfway throughout the class, long black hair rested on Sasuke's desk and shoulder. He looked to his right and raised an eyebrow in scrutiny.
"Is there something you need, sensei?"
"Just wondering why you're in this class, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru purred. "You seem to already know everything already."
Sasuke mutely shrugged.
"You know, I substituted your brother's class for a couple of months. He was just like how you are now, he knew everything he needed to know in advance."
Black eyes narrowed at his teacher. What exactly was Orochimaru getting at? Sasuke remained still and listened.
"I think Itachi-kun would make a good serial killer."
Sasuke jolted and snapped his pencil in half.