Disclaimer: Naruto's characters are not mine.

Warnings: This is a SasuNaru fic, meaning, YAOI. Also, extreme OOCness and a whole heap of grammatical errors gone undetected.

A/n: thanks heaps for the kind reviews!

Something Simple: Chapter three

The bell signalling for lunch went off. It had been a long two periods for Naruto and he was glad that it was finally over. So, it had happened. Kakashi had seriously jinxed him and he was wondering, again, if the God's really hated him that much.

----

Naruto had stepped into third period with the hope that his day would gradually become better. His Literature class didn't contain a certain boy he didn't want to see and he took it as a good sign. He hadn't minded that no one had taken the effort to talk to him then. He was used to it and had even seen it coming. After all, wasn't his English class the same? Thus, even when he spent the whole 50 minutes in silence, with no one to even inform him of what was going on, he was, nevertheless, content.

However, as Naruto did enter his Methods class, he saw, yet again, the familiarly piercing gaze directed at him. He had taken a good five minutes to adjust to his situation and had cursed (rather colourfully) at his life for the fifth time that morning. So, Uchiha Sasuke was in his class. Again?

He quietly sat down in his seat, intending to be unnoticed. Not saying a word; not attempting to answer any questions. This way, he thought that no trouble would come. But, through experience, Naruto should've known that whenever he wished for something, the opposite would always occur for him and so he shouldn'tve been shocked to find that within 10 minutes into class, he and Sasuke had somehow gotten into a heated argument.

He didn't even know how it happened. One minute, the teacher was asking him something, and the next thing he found Sasuke interjecting. He had realised not long since their encounter, that everything Sasuke said would somehow get on his nerves. Therefore, it was only natural that when Sasuke corrected, Naruto just had to fight back. Besides, who in their right minds knew that the derivative of cos would be the inverse of sin? Naruto hadn't learnt it before, and Sasuke should've been more polite in contradicting him. But, as it was, the two stubborn students had argued it out. Argued about something as insignificant as the positive and negative signs of sin. It was a display of such idiocy that the class found it rude not to laugh, most particularly, at Naruto.

But Naruto had taken revenge. After all, he was one for minor details and was a quick learner. He couldn't find it more amusing that Sasuke would answer questions wrongly in the trigonometric equations when he was asked. Or maybe, he just didn't give the boy time to correct himself before he intervened. Any hows, he had seen the embarrassed look (or was it an angry look?) on Sasuke's face and he was more than thrilled. But this soon resulted to Sasuke fighting back and he realised that, maybe, the boy was smarter than him after all. Half the things Sasuke said, he hadn't even heard of!

----

He felt himself grow restless as he approached the door. It had taken him a lot in focusing on Sasuke's mistakes especially when he didn't excel in Maths and the boy had made so little. Nevertheless, he was proud of himself when he did pick up the right ones, although, right now he was more interested in filling his already empty stomach. As he was about to exit, however, he hit his shoulders into someone else's. Turning, he found, once again, Sasuke's face in his line of vision.

"Fuck off, Sasuke!"

"You get lost, idiot."

Naruto rolled his eyes. He didn't really want to make a scene. Besides, he really doubted he had the energy. So, he opted for a peaceful solution.

"Look, you dumb fuck. I was here first so let me through."

He saw the incredulous look on the boy's face as his eyes swept past him.

"I was here first," he heard the dangerously low tone.

"No, I was. Now, are you gonna move, or what?" Naruto asked tiredly but the boy didn't budge.

In the corner of his eye, Naruto saw the few students behind them, waiting patiently to get through. He had had enough of the boy to last him for a lifetime and he didn't need anymore of this rubbish. So, out of instinct or bad nature or whatever, he lifted his books up and whacked the boy with it. He heard the loud impact the heavy textbook made with the boy's head and the shocked gasps behind him. Naruto had never done anything so rash and violent before and he should've felt guilty for it. However, maybe because it was done to a certain Uchiha, he found himself no guilt at all. And, as he saw the gap between them, he quickly made a dash for it.

Not long, though, something hard hit him on the back of his head and he fell down for the second time that day. This time, however, no one was there to ease his fall and a sharp pain shot through his skull as he made contact with the floor. He got up and quickly turned around.

----

Sasuke swore, in his whole 17 years of existence, that he had never seen anyone as annoying as the blond haired boy in front of him. It was obvious to everyone in the room just who stood at the door first. But the imbecile just had to be so blind and accuse him of pushing in!

He felt the blood running through his hair and dripping at the side of his face and cursed the fool for using the abnormally heavy Maths book on him. Naruto was staring at him now, a little wide eyed, and, due the recent fall, Sasuke noted that Naruto's forehead was also bleeding. He took the look as a sign of regret, but that didn't interfere with what he was about to do next. The boy had hurt him and he was going to pay. Bad.

He lunged forward and placed a hard punch on the blond's face. Before the boy could react, he grabbed the boy's shirt to halt his fall. With another powerful punch, he landed it in the boy's stomach. In the background, he could hear the students cheer, but he paid them no heed. He was fighting for himself, damnit, not for their amusement! However, as quickly as it began, it stopped, as he felt strong hands pulling them apart. He looked up to see who the intruder was.

It was Kakashi. And he was…laughing?

----

Kakashi couldn't suppress his laugh. So, the two had now decided to resort to bashing each other up. Things were progressing faster than what he'd imagined. Not that he was complaining.

"I'm very disappointed in you two," he said, obvious that the ingenuity of that statement could easily be detected. He had been laughing at them just a moment ago. He heard a grunt from Sasuke and he suddenly saw the bloody look on Naruto's face. He slightly winced at the damage the former had done to the boy.

"Gee, Sasuke. You didn't need to go all out on him." Sasuke looked away.

"I could've done worse."

He heard some shuffling in the direction of the other boy.

"Sasuke, you bastard! You punched me twice!" the boy screamed.

"Yeah?" the other replied nonchalantly, "I'm surprised you can count." Kakashi pushed the two as far away from each other as he could when he felt Naruto trying to charge forward. Even if he did enjoy this little charade, he didn't want to be sued for negligence if one of them ended up dead.

"Look, guys," he tried to fake tiredness, "we're going to the principle's office."

Kakashi dragged the two boys along the corridors, ignoring all the stares coming in their direction. Not long later, they approached the said office and gave a loud entrance.

"Tsunade san! These two boys were found fighting in the corridors!" Kakashi yelled. He could see the lady wince from his volume and he secretly tried to suppress the smirk that was about to form.

"What're their names?" she asked in a bored tone after her recovery.

"Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto," he answered proudly. Though, he didn't quite know why.

"Uchiha Sasuke?" she asked incredulously. "What the hell is Uchiha Sasuke doing here?"

"He initiated a fight with Uzumaki Naruto, Tsunada san!" He sounded like a soldier even to himself. Tsunade looked at the dark haired boy closely.

"Did you," she began, " initiate a fight with that boy?" Her gaze went to Naruto, confirming that she was talking about the latter.

"No," Sasuke said flatly. "He started it."

Tsunade seemed pleased as she resumed her original position.

"Well then," she said gaily. "You can go now."

Kakashi really wasn't one who liked corruptness and blatant biasness. Even if he was one himself, it didn't mean he approved of its evilness. He found himself looking at the other boy, feeling quite sorry for him that he would have to suffer from such unjust verdicts. Though, he had no intention to help. Seriously, it wasn't any of his business, right? And it wasn't like Tsunade didn't see the boy's bashed up face. However, even if Kakashi admitted that he was no morally good hero, he did end up doing something in defence of the boy. He gave Tsunade the most deadly greazie he could muster.

"B-But ma'am," Naruto stuttered, " you can't just do that. I mean, look what he did to me!" He tried to point out the obvious signs of his distress. Kakashi couldn't help but feel greater pity for him.

"Look, kid. You're worse as it is starting a fight in this friendly school environment." She paused, as if trying to remember something. "Ah! You're that new kid, yeah? I thought I've told you about the rules of this school at our last appointment. Don't tell me you've forgotten them already?"

There was a shrug on the other's side.

"You'd better not. And if I remembered right, I've also told you that if you disobeyed any of those rules, you'd be automatically kicked out after the first warning. This is your first warning."

Kakashi stared at the lady; this was getting a bit too far. He could even sense that Sasuke was shocked with the outcome.

"You don't need to attend the last two classes. Go to room 301 for an hour's detention. I think someone's already in there. If there's nothing else, you're all dismissed."

"Ma'am," he heard Sasuke's voice. "It wasn't entirely his fault."

"No, Sasuke kun. You don't need to defend him." She turned to look at the unusually quiet boy. "I'm sure you understand that we were kind enough to have let you in." The voice was calm. Kakashi looked at Naruto and was shocked to see that he's face was down, like young children receiving a harsh lecture from their parents. "You're grades had been excellent and under normal circumstances the scholarship awarded to you would not have been be disputed. However, you must realise that with you're background, we had been very lenient on you. You would've missed out if we didn't decide to give you a chance."

There was an opening and Naruto filled it in with a "yes ma'am".

Tsunade sighed. She seemed tired and maybe, a little bit, guilty? for what she said. Kakashi couldn't understand all this. Even with the corruptness of the school, they had never been so harsh on a student before. He was sure that the financial state of Naruto had nothing to do with the whole situation; there was something else. But he just couldn't figure out what it was.

"Many parents had feared you and have even threatened to remove their children from our school. I hope you appreciate what you have and I wish you would not try to jeopardise this chance given to you again, Uzumaki."

Uzumaki, Kakashi thought, that name was awfully familiar.

Naruto gave a solemn nod. "Very well, you're dismissed."

The two boys were beginning to exit and he followed suit. It was quiet between the two. He took a guess that Sasuke was probably feeling a bit shocked and guilty from the outcome. No matter how the boy managed his mask of indifference, Kakashi knew that, deep down, he wasn't as bad as other's believed him to be. He was like every other kid, capable of feeling, but his refusal of displaying them made him that much different.

As they made a fair distance away from the office, Sasuke tried to apologise. "Hey, Naruto" he said, " I…er…I'm sorry." The boy didn't even bother turning around.

"Fuck off Uchiha."

Given Naruto's situation, it should have been understandable that he was pissed off at the boy. However, given Sasuke's situation, Naruto had been a bit too rude. Kakashi had never heard the stoic boy apologise to anyone in all the years he had known him. Clearly, it wasn't the boy's fault, thus, the apology could've been considered… unneeded. He didn't really do anything wrong, and he couldn't help it that Tsunade had given Naruto the unfair warning. Therefore, when Kakashi had actually heard it, he was damn right shocked about it. Didn't Sasuke hate the boy?

Then, suddenly, like lightening striking in the semi-darkness, he finally realised what it was that was so familiar about the Uzumaki name. And he understood why Tsunade had said those harsh words. Everything had finally come to make sense.

He looked at Naruto's form turning a curve, heading towards the direction of room 301. Kakashi felt a stab of guilt for not standing up for the boy earlier as the latter disappeared. Though, he knew that even if he did, there wouldn't be much of a difference. He could feel the curious stare from Sasuke, but he ignored him. Why hadn't he known it earlier? He scolded himself. How could he have not remembered?

A good five minutes passed, but Kakashi couldn't find himself to move.

TBC…

A/N: Ugh… I hate this chapter! I finally realised how hard it actually is to write an ongoing fic. To all you authors out there…how the hell do you do it???