Chapter Four

Wear Your Secrets

When Naruto headed to his room after avoiding everyone else in the house, Sai blocked his path at the top of the stairs. Naruto had put on the jacket he kept in his backpack, hoping that would be enough to hide that he'd been in a fight—if you could call it that. He didn't feel like Sasuke and him had fought. It was more cathartic than that, but he was glad it was Sasuke and not someone else. They weren't great with words, but punching each other released something, and he wanted to do it again.

"Hey, Sai, what's up?" Naruto said, trying to shuffle past him, but Sai wasn't budging.

"Your knuckles are bloody, and your face is messed up. You look terrible," Sai said.

Always the charmer. "Yeah, it's nothing." Again, he tried to move past Sai, but the pale kid didn't move.

"They'll get mad, you know. They don't want us getting into fights," Sai said.

"They won't notice. They hardly pay attention. How'd you know before I walked in, anyway?"

"I saw you walking in from my window. It creeped me out how happy you looked after clearly losing to whoever you fought with."

"I didn't lose."

"That's what your focused on?"

Sai got up and led Naruto into his room, and Naruto walked through the door cautiously, never having seen Sai's room before. The walls were covered in artwork, mostly drawn in ink: beautiful landscapes, grotesque abstracts, and lifelike portraits. He certainly had talent compared to that mess Sasuke was drawing. On his bed was an array of colored paints, and Sai asked Naruto to sit with him as he started mixing a few to make a tan color.

"Stay still," he said, dipping his finger into the paint and reaching toward Naruto's face.

"Is this supposed to be makeup?" Naruto asked, trying to stay still and not wince as Sai covered his scratches and bruises.

"Makeup would work better, but this will get you through dinner at least," Sai said, continuing to mix the colors to better match Naruto's skin tone.

"Thanks, Sai."

"It was Sasuke, wasn't it?" Sai said suddenly, a smile stretching across his face, a small chuckle too.

"Why would you think that?" Naruto bit his lip, which was a mistake because there was a nasty cut that paint wouldn't fix.

"I don't know what's going on between you two, but I saw you walking out with him a few hours after school. I was sketching near the track, so don't think I was stalking you. I left before seeing you guys leave, though."

"You're everywhere, aren't you?" Naruto couldn't hold back a wince as Sai gently covered his knuckles.

"We're good at that, you and me. Everywhere but nowhere."

[break]

Sakura told Ino that she would walk to school today. She wanted the extra time to think about what to propose to add to the novella, and she couldn't focus when all Ino wanted to talk about was gossip, specifically this new kid Sai, who kept to himself but according to her was "kinda cute." Sakura didn't have eyes for anyone but Sasuke, and this group project gave her a chance to grow closer to him, whether Naruto was there or not.

Like an apparition, she spotted Sasuke across the street on his way to school. Though his uniform was neatly pressed, and he stood tall and straight, something was off. So far, he hadn't noticed her, so she tried to get a better look. His cheek was puffy, he was favoring his left shoulder as his arms swayed while walking, and he'd pulled down his sleeves to cover as much as his hands as he could.

There's no way he…

Sakura ran across the street and fell in pace beside him, but he didn't acknowledge her, but he did move aside to give her space on the sidewalk.

"Good morning! I didn't know you walked to school," Sakura said, though she had seen him a few times wandering around the city, but never in the same place twice. He stayed silent. "Have any ideas for the novella? I was thinking maybe a jealous lover who seeks revenge. You know, combining your idea with mine?"

He quickened his pace, and with the rush of movement, his sleeve lifted, and Sakura saw his bruised and cut-up knuckles. His cheek was swollen and a little red, and he had a cut just below his lip. He had definitely been in some sort of fight, but she didn't mention it, thinking that it'd just annoy him. Instead, she reached into her bag and took out some first-aid ointment she kept for emergencies.

She handed it to him, and he took it without a thank you. "Do you think Naruto has come up with anything yet?" she said.

Sasuke opened the ointment and started spreading it on his knuckles, so delicately and tactfully she wouldn't have noticed he was doing it if she wasn't paying attention. At the mention of Naruto's name, Sasuke scoffed, the first sound he'd made since she joined him. Taking the hint, she pulled out her thermos of tea she hadn't started drinking yet. Caffeine helped with headaches, and judging from Sasuke's demeanor, he wasn't feeling the best, so the green tea may help.

She handed it to him, and he returned her ointment and took the thermos.

"Thank you," he said, and started to drink.

Sakura wondered if anyone bothered to take care of Sasuke. He wasn't exactly ignored at school, probably harboring more notice than he cared for, including from her, but attention wasn't care. She remembered she had a pack of Band-Aids in her pack too, so she took those out, and instead of handing one to him, she opened one up, cautiously took his hand, and placed it over the deepest cut above his middle knuckle. Covering them all wasn't necessary, just the obvious ones. Sakura gave him the box but held on to a few, wondering who the other person was who needed them.

After another swig of green tea, he handed her thermos back to her. "Your idea is good, but it's not complex," he said. "Basic story threads won't get us an A."

[break]

Naruto and Sasuke sat apart from each other in most of their classes, Naruto thinking that if they kept their distance until literary arts class, no one would put two and two together that they had exchanged hands. Sai was kind enough to cover what he could on Naruto's face and hands that morning, but by the end of the day, the paint was dry and crumbling off. He was quieter that day, trying to blend in more than usual. At lunch, Kiba and Choji had asked him if he wanted to join them in pranking Kakashi-Sensei by stealing the books he kept under ungraded papers on his desk. Normally, Naruto would be all for that kind of thing, but he didn't need extra attention right now, so he'd declined.

Naruto arrived on time for literary arts class, where the desk to Sasuke's right was empty, as was expected since everyone was sitting in their novella groups. Though Naruto expected Sakura to be sitting at the desk to Sasuke's left, what he didn't expect was to see the two talking. Sakura looked more comfortable than usual, resting her cheek in her left hand, and playing with a piece of her hair with her right. Sasuke wasn't exactly smiling, but he looked brighter today, sitting up straight, not seeming to care that his cuts and bruises were obvious, and looking interested in whatever Sakura was saying.

Naruto took his seat and didn't greet either of them, instead pulling out his notebook with the notes he'd written last night, which were few. After dinner last night, he'd spent most of his time working out and getting out every bit of energy he had, working off the high from the fight and the exhilaration of Sai acknowledging his existence, even putting forth the effort to help him.

Iruka-Sensei told the class he would be kind enough to let them work on their projects today, but he emphasized not all classes would be dedicated to it, encouraging them to work outside of class and be productive. The three took the same formation they did yesterday, Sakura moving her things to Sasuke's desk and moving her chair between it and Naruto's. Naruto scooted his chair closer, once again leaning on Sasuke's desk. There was no way he could be ignored now.

"Naruto, is that paint?" Sakura asked.

"What?" Naruto said, playing dumb. He'd checked his face at lunch, but it must have dried even more since then.

Sasuke pulled his jacket off the back of his chair and handed it to Naruto. "You look ridiculous—more so than usual."

Feeling warmth rush to his cheeks, Naruto took the jacket and wiped the crusted paint from his face, watching Sai's hard work float in chunks onto Sasuke's desk. He took the moment to look at Sasuke, see if he was in rough shape too. He had some small cuts, lingering redness, and some blueness beneath his right eye, but his skin was glistening with some sort of ointment, as were his hands. Why wasn't he hiding anything?

"Much better," Sakura said when Naruto finished with wiping his hands too.

Naruto realized that Sasuke had the luxury of not being questioned, for he was rarely criticized—perhaps because he had a searing confidence that rivaled few. Sakura wasn't asking questions either, instead ignoring the cause of Naruto's condition and instead tentatively addressing the result. Sakura pulled out some sort of ointment from her bag, and Naruto was expecting her to hand it to him, but instead she took Sasuke's right hand—the one he'd used to get in a rib shot last night—and rubbed some onto his cuts. Sasuke didn't even look at her, just let her hold his hand and stop the subtle bleeding that had started between his pointer and middle fingers.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, drawing Naruto's attention away from Sasuke's hand, "what have you come up with?"

"For what?" Naruto said.

"The project, idiot."

Sakura kindly passed Naruto the ointment, which Naruto put first on his lip, feeling immediate relief. What was in this stuff? "I haven't thought about it much. I was busy yesterday." Sasuke hit his knee against Naruto's—hard. "Ow!"

"Useless," Sakura said. "We should go to that coffee place after school and work on this more. We're not going to get anywhere if we just throw ideas around and don't actually write anything."

"Sure," Naruto said, looking forward to spending time with Sakura after school. He'd always wanted to ask her out, but she was obsessed with Sasuke like so many others, so he'd abandoned the dream. Admittedly, he hoped that Sasuke would come too. He had some questions to ask. What about round two?

"Yeah," Sasuke said.

Naruto saw Sakura's eyes light up, but she kept her cool, remaining calm when she was likely losing her mind. Sasuke didn't hang out with anyone outside of school, as far as Naruto knew, so this was a rarity.

"Um, Naruto?" said a small voice behind him.

Naruto turned to see Hinata standing there holding a lunch box. "Oh, hi, Hinata!" he said excitedly, always happy when any of the girls in class said hello.

Hinata looked shaken, but she thrust the lunch box forward. "I wasn't sure if you had lunch, and I have some extra. Would you like it?"

Naruto was thrilled and took the lunch box gratefully. "Wow, thanks, Hinata."

Hinata nodded, held her hands in front of her face, like she was trying to hide, and returned to her group with Shino and Kiba. Kiba rolled his eyes and welcomed her back. Naruto heard him say, "At least you didn't faint."

Naruto opened the lunch box immediately, his mouth watering at the professional-grade-looking food before him, sweet red bean buns and savory smelling ramen waiting to be devoured. Once he dug in, he became aware of how closely Sasuke and Sakura were watching him.

"What did I miss?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke folded his arms, eyeing the food. Sakura was playing with her hair again.

"Do you guys want some?" Naruto asked.

Sakura took a red bean bun and split it in half, then handed one half to Sasuke, who started eating, his gaze wandering to Hinata.

Whatever, Naruto thought, happy they left the ramen for him.

Once class was over, the three of them walked out of school together, and Naruto realized this was the first time outside of class he'd been with Sakura and Sasuke. Though he liked attention, he felt eyes on them as they headed for the parking lot, which was making him nervous. All having walked to school that day, their plan was to head straight for the coffee shop. Neji, who was a senior this year, was chatting with Tenten but stopped to stare at the bruise that was now visible—sans paint—on Naruto's jaw. Tenten pointed to Sasuke's hands, which were out in the open since he'd rolled his sleeves up to elbows. Looks of admiration usually reserved for Sasuke were falling on Naruto too, that and curiosity.

When the three reached the parking lot next to the baseball field, Naruto nudged Sasuke, taking this as an opportunity. "When?" he whispered.

"Does it matter?" Sasuke whispered back with grit in his tone.

The guy had seemed ready to go at it again yesterday, so Naruto didn't understand the hesitation now. Naruto barely grasped his own need, thinking that being wanted was great, seen as a challenge and competitor even better, but Sasuke's reasons must have been deeper, and Naruto was determined to find out what they were.