When Sasuke got to school the next day, he heard yelling. "Calm down, Gaara," came a concerned female voice. And then, there was a yell that sounded similar to... Jugo? Sasuke opened the classroom door and, sure enough, it was Jugo and Gaara looking ready to beat each other's heads in.
Jugo usually wasn't like this. Sasuke didn't know how to react so he just sat down and waited for Suigetsu to calm Jugo down while Temari calmed Gaara down.
Suigetsu sat down and Sasuke asked what happened. "Naruto and Gaara started arguing which pissed Jugo off. Naruto sat down when he saw Jugo pissed but Gaara started fighting Jugo next."
Sasuke was still slightly surprised and looked over at Jugo. Jugo looked calm as ever. Interesting. Kakashi made Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro introduce themselves before class started.
"Hi. I'm Temari and these are my brothers." Kankuro waved and Gaara said nothing. Sasuke kept cautious of Gaara in case he was the type to pick fights over anything. He went to school with Gaara in middle school but never had classes with him or his siblings.
All he really knew was that Gaara was known for never losing fights and that he was adopted. The first few classes went by with no fights which meant Sasuke wasn't bothered any more than any other day.
Jugo seemed to be angry with himself for trying to fight Gaara and even apologized to him. "I'm sorry for being rude earlier. I assure you that I have no problem with you. I hope you'll forgive me," he'd said.
Gaara didn't seem to really care either way. "Whatever," he replied. It was almost time for homeroom, so everyone headed out to Kakashi's classroom.
But, apparently Sasuke forgot. It was Friday, which meant class counseling. Class counseling started an hour before lunch. Counseling took place during homeroom.
The counselor, Mr.Iruka, brought a fat book with him when he moved a chair to sit in the middle of the room. "Alright. Move your desks aside and put your chairs in a circle."
"What a drag," commented Sjikamaru as he lazily drug his desk to the side of of the room. "Hn," Sasuke agreed with a slight nod. After Sasuke put his chair in the circle, Naruto put his next to him.
The circle was now complete. "So, we'll go around the circle and introduce ourselves. First, you'll say your name and then you'll say why you're here. If you don't feel like sharing why you're here, then you can pass. I'll go first."
"I became the counselor of this alternative school because I wanted to have students close enough to me that they'd feel comfortable with telling me all their problems," Mr.Iruka started.
"If you can't tell," he continued, "In regular schools, the school counselors don't have the time to get close with their students and it's rare that the students feel like they can trust them. It's hard to be open with someone who's a stranger."
"That's why I came to this school. I'll see you guys every Friday and hopefully you'll feel comfortable around me soon. The rules are that I won't tell ehat you tell me to police or your parents unless you're planning on hurting yourself or someone else. Okay. Your turn," he said, looking at Shino.
"Hello," said Shino. "I am Shino. I had to go here because I got expelled from school for bringing bugs and telling teachers they shouldn't be teachers when they make that many mistakes."
Sakura was next. "Hi. My name is Sakura. I had to go here because the school said they didn't want to support my weight loss and my parents were upset that I was trying to look good." So, basically, she was forced here to get better, Sasuke thought.
He stopped himself from assuming too much before but he wasn't surprised. Both her and Ino looked deathly skinny. Then, it was Ino's turn. "Hi. I'm Ino. I got sent here for the same reason as Sakura. They said they'd keep watch over us to make sure we eat a lot."
Both Ino and Sakura looked extremely displeased in the fact that they were being forced to eat. It was Choji next. "Hey, guys. I'm Choji and I got sent here because I kept fighting people who called me fat. It's better to be overweight than grossly skinny," he said, eyeing Sakura and Ino.
"Hey! At least we're not gonna get diabetes, fatso!" Ino yelled and stood up to point at Choji. Choji's face turned red in anger and got up too. Shikamaru quickly held Choji back before he said anything he couldn't take back.
Mr. Iruka looked terribly annoyed but took a deep breath and calmed down. "Choji, apologize to Ino and Ino, apologize to Choji." Ino crossed her arms and Choji looked like he wanted to argue but he apologized anyway. "It's fine, Choji," said Ino, "and I'm sorry for calling you fatso."
Choji accepted hesitantly. "Very good. Next?" Shikamaru sighed tiredly, as if he was being forced to run a mile. "I'm Shikamaru and I got expelled for missing too many days, constantly being late to class, and for never showing up to make up for homework I didn't do."
Iruka nodded and everyone looked at Gaara. "I am Gaara. I had to come here for getting in too many fights." Temari and Kankuro didn't say why they were there. Probably because they got in trouble on purpose to be with Gaara. It would be bad if they said they did it on purpose.
"Okay. Next," said Mr.Iruka. Hinata looked around the room nervously. She was so quiet that the room became even quieter to hear her. Sasuke could hear the annoying tick of the clock on the wall. "I-I. Uh, I am Hinata a-and I had to come he- ere b-b-because of my s-s-social anxiety. It's nice to meet a-and see all of you."
"Hi, Hinata," Iruka replied in the purpose of encouragement. Rock Lee started speaking and in comparison to Hinata's quiet voice, it sounded like he was yelling. "Hi! I am Rock Lee! It's great to see all this great, bright youth here! I'm so happy to have such great rivals!"
"I had to go to this school because teachers thought I caused too much distraction and that it would be a better environment for me to be here." He looked exaggeratedly apologetic. Mr. Iruka smiled and nodded to Neji.
"I am Neji. I got expelled for ignoring teachers and being to honest for their liking." Naruto was up next and he looked a little nervous. The nervous look changed to one of being defensive.
"I'm Naruto and I got expelled for talking too much, getting into fights when people were rude to me or my friends, for bad grades, and for talking back to teachers. Oh, yeah. And I was also late too much."
Then, Naruto waved his hands around. "But, like, that's not fair. If someone's pickin' a fight with me then they should get in trouble. And if someone wants to talk shit about my friends then they're pickin' a fight, y'know.
"And they give us five minutes at most to get to class. When a class is across the building, what are you supposed to do? Run in the halls and get in even more trouble?!" Sasuke massaged his forehead. "Naruto, stop being so loud. You're giving me a headache."
Naruto looked bewildered. "You're taking the stupid school's side? Of course you would, you jerk." Iruka had to calm down again before speaking. "Stop arguing, you two. We only have 20 minutes left and we have to get through the rest of the class's introductions."
Sasuke only kept quiet because he wanted to leave early so he could talk to Karin about buying cigarettes. "Okay, Sasuke. You're turn." Sasuke gave a "hn." "My name is Sasuke and I'd rather not tell everyone why I was expelled. "
It was none of their business, he figured. Naruto was going to complain about how everyone else said why they got expelled but Suigetsu started talking. "I'm Suigetsu and I got expelled for numerous things."
Apparently, that was all he was going to say so Karin started her introduction. "I'm Karin and I don't see why I should tell everyone why I got expelled." What she said caused a few annoyed looks but she obviously didn't care. Maybe that's what she was going for.
Jugo, luckily the last person, started. "I'm Jugo. I got expelled for getting in fights. I have bipolar and although I like peace, I can't help it when I get angry." Sasuke was actually a bit surprised by that. He'd never seen Jugo have an outburst and he always seemed to be calm.
"Well, that's it. Good job, everyone and next week, we'll start having deeper conversations. You're free to go," said Mr. Iruka. Luckily, they were 8 minutes early because Suigetsu, Sasuke, and Karin didn't talk about why they were expelled.
Everyone was happy to be released early for lunch. "First come, first serve," said Choji. Suigetsu and Sasuke did their usual routine of grabbing their lunch and going to the abandoned house.
When they go to the house and sat down, Karin pulled out a couple of cigarettes and some weed. "Do you want to try smoking weed?" She asked Sasuke. Sasuke shook his head.
He didn't need to smoke weed yet. Cigarettes were good enough for now. "Actually. Karin, do you think I could buy a pack of cigarettes from you?" Karin nodded and gave a proud looking expression, as if Sasuke was all grown up.
"Yeah. Do you want a pack of Marlboro reds or something else?" Sasuke hadn't really thought of the fact that there were all sorts of cigarette brands. Since he'd already tried Marlboro reds, he wanted to stick with Marlboros
He wanted to get more comfortable enough with both cigarettes as a whole before trying others. Besides, he'd never bought drugs before. He wanted to make sure he could 100% trust Karin and Suigetsu.
Sasuke trusted them for the most part but he'd hear enough stories of being cheated out of money to be wary. He knew he could trust Jugo as he didn't have a mischief side to him in the slightest. The only problem was that Jugo likely wouldn't encourage his smoking by buying cigarettes for him.
Trusting Karin on this, Sasuke replied. "Marlboro reds. How much?" "$10 and I can get you two packs of cigarettes and a lighter. I know this guy who sells them for $5 each. I'll give you one of my lighters. Don't worry. The lighter is full," said Karin.
Sasuke truly felt grateful for this. Too grateful, in his opinion. He tried not to get his hopes up for in case it didn't work out. "Here's the money." Sasuke handed a $10 bill to her. "Okay. I can get these for you before school tomorrow, at 7:30. Want to meet our dealer?" She asked we'll gesturing to her, Suigetsu, and Jugo.
Now, don't get Sasuke wrong. He'd met people before who had drug dealers and never had any problems other than not getting what they paid for. However, there was always a dangerous dealer out there.
Someone who wouldn't blink at murder because dealing was a business and buyers were products of money. On the other hand, there was a good enough chance that Sasuke may have to be in contact with Suigetsu, Karin, and Jugo's dealer.
He didn't like it but Sasuke thought that, overall, it would be better to meet this guy. "Fine," he told Karin. Now, the only problem was telling Kakashi he wanted to be early without sounding too suspicious.
For the rest of lunch, they smoked together. Sasuke, smoking a cigarette while the others smoked weed and passed a cigarette amongst each other. Sasuke only coughed twice while smoking this time.
He only realized how fucking terrible he felt until he smoked the cigarette, which elated his mood a lot. When they finished, they walked to P.E. Sasuke knew Naruto would make him hang out with everyone if they had freetime in P.E.
Unfortunately for him, they had freetime again. "So, how's Itachi and Kakashi?" Asked Naruto as they walked to the group of people. Sasuke felt a little annoyed that Naruto had to bring up Itachi.
"They're fine," he said, trying to end the conversation. Naruto caught on and Sasuke was glad he didn't push him to talk about it. "Jiraiya has asked about you recently." Sasuke raised his eyebrow.
"And, what did you tell him?" Naruto scrunched his face. "I told him that you're a jerk as always." "Yeah? Well, at least I'm not an idiot." Naruto hit Sasuke on hi shoulder and ran.
Usually, Sasuke would've chased Naruto down and hit him back 10x harder but he didn't feel like doing that right now. Naruto, who made it to the grouo of people, looked disappointed but didn't say anything.
Sasuke made it to where everyone was huddled in a circle. "I can't believe we have to do counseling," Naruto complained, "we don't need counseling. Do they think we're kids or something?" Shino looked at Naruto. "Actually, we are kids."
Naruto was going to give a comeback but couldn't think of anything and stuck with pouting childishly. "Counseling's a drag," said Shikamaru. "Everything's a drag to you," Ino said pointedly.
P.E. ended and, soon, school was over. Sasuke met Kakashi at his car and thought of a way to ask to be dropped off at school early tomorrow without sounding suspicious. When they got to Kakashi's house, he gave up on finding a way not to sound suspicious.
"Can you drop me off at school early tomorrow?" Sasuke sat down with Kakashi on the couch in the livingroom. Pakkun jumped up on Sasuke and he sat him on Kakashi. "Why do you want to be early to school all of a sudden? You're the last person I'd expect to ask that."
Sasuke gave him a half truth. "I want to hang out with my friends. We're getting to school early tomorrow and just hanging out." Kakashi sighed. "Well, I guess I can't deny you that." Sasuke wasn't sure if he was joking or not.
"Are you fucking with me?" He asked straight up. "Not unless you're joking with me. And watch your language." Sasuke blinked and stood up. "Okay. Thanks." "What time do you want to be there?"
"At 7." Kakashi nodded and Sasuke went to his room. Sasuke didn't bother to go to the bathroom to cut this time. He rolled up his sleeve and cut the stress of life into his shoulder. When he was done, Saauke laid on his bed and thought about meeting the dealer tomorrow.
What was he supposed to do when meeting the dealer? He figured he'd just act cool. No matter what happened, as long as he left with his cigarettes, he'd consider it a success.
Then, it was dinner. Dinner was quiet. After dinner, Sasuke was tired enough to fall asleep. He dreamt of his parents' murders again.
