Nope! I don't own them. Shocking isn't it. I mean, everyone writes fanfiction for their own stories. (Well, actually I do. But that's not the point.) The point is, if I owned them, I would fill the manga with tons of SASUNARU fluffy goodness. Wouldn't we all?
A/N: Okies everyone. It's Monday, and as promised, I have an update for you, and a day early. I do apologize for the long wait, especially after I spoiled you with a chapter every day last week except for Tuesday. That said, I probably won't be able to post that many times this week, but I'll try. The chapter title, I have to mention now because I'm really excited. It's the title of a song by AFI off their Black Sails In The Sunset album, which I just bought a few hours ago so I'm really excited. It's also the title of a piece of Literature from the Middle Ages about the evil of witches and how to detect it and kill them, but that wasn't what I was thinking of. Anyways, I'm really excited about buying it, because, as we can all tell (if you can't your retarded), I love AFI. Anyways, the whole point is, it's not mine either. The warnings for this story are OOC, Language, and future SASUNARU boy on boy lovin'. (And I promise, it's coming soon) If you don't like it, commit suicide. Or, just don't read it. Now that that's out of the way, I'll thank my reviewers.
Kaiou-hime: I'm glad you like them, I'm definitely trying to have them interact more with each other. About Itachi and Sasuke, there's no real grudge between them, they've just sort of both really cold people, you know? Thanks so much for reviewing. I'm not giving away treats this chapter because I only have like five minutes to respond to your lovely reviews and I'm trying to update a day early. I don't have time to think of things. Treats next time. Thanks.
Sasunaru-fangurls: I'm so glad you've grown to like this story, I'm trying to speed things up and get to the SasuNaru, but with my writing style, it makes things hard. No treats today, I explained to Kaiou-hime. Treats next time. Thanks for reviewing.
SasuNaru-kun: I'm quite the Sasuke fan myself, especially when he's wearing leather and being nice to Sasuke. No treats today (see response to Kaiou-hime). Thanks for reviewing.
Hieisbestbuddy888: I know it's only the second day, but like I said in one of my author's note, lot has happened. I'm glad you like it anyway. NO treats today (see Kaiou-hime's response). Thanks for reviewing.
Juu: I'm glad you're enjoying the story, I'm trying to get the SASUNARU in a believable fashion, believe me, I'm tempted to just jump into, but that wouldn't be right. TT. No treats today. (See Kaiou-hime's response) Thanks for the review.
ewon: I'm glad you like the chapters. No treats this time (see Kaiou-hime's last few sentences). Thanks for reviewing.
Kyuubi-kun: I know! I have a total goth fetish, and it's going to be the downfall of me one of these days. Almost every character I create is the two G's. Goth and Gay. I'm glad you enjoyed these chapters, thanks for reviewing, and see Kaiou-hime's response for an explanation of the lack of treats.
Now on with the story.
But Home Is Nowhere...: Malleus Maleficarum
Mr. Iruka stood silent at the front of the classroom waiting for the students to quiet own. When, after five minutes, they were still chattering away, he picked a large history text left behind by someone and dropped it from above his head onto his desk. Naruto, who had seen this coming had plugged his ears. Everyone else was shocked, a few screamed, and everyone went silent. "Thank you." Mr. Iruka had a bright smile on his face. Naruto just shook his head.
Mr. Iruka looked around the classroom as if challenging anyone to speak before continuing, "Today, I will be assigning a project." There was a loud group moan in response to this comment, and Iruka's smile widened as he continued, "Oh come on, it won't be that bad. Now, I want you to number off one two, starting here," he pointed at the desk in the front right hand corner. "And going down the columns. When you get to the last person in a column, start back at the front of the room. Go."
For two or three minutes, the twenty students in the classroom numbered off. Naruto, when it was his turn shouted loudly, "Dos! Ni! Deux(1)! Two!" Several people glared at him, but Naruto didn't care. Sasuke smiled at him, and he smiled back. When it came to the dark haired boy's turn, he gave a quiet,
"One."
Once the counting was finished, Mr. Iruka nodded and said happily, "Alright! Twos, I want you to tear out a strip of paper and write your name on it. Once you've done that, fold it in half and come put the slip in this basket." The teacher waved a wicker napkin holder and waited for the students to do as they had been told.
Naruto ripped a piece of notebook paper from his binder and tore a strip off the bottom. On it he wrote in all caps, 'UZUMAKI NARUTO, COOLEST KID IN THE CLASS.' This done, he followed the rest of the directions. He was the last one to slip back into his desk, due to so many people pushing him back in line, and once he sat down in his seat, Mr. Iruka began giving more instructions.
"Alright then. Is that all of the twos?" He looked around, everyone was nodding. "Good. Ones, I want you to come up here and pick a name out of the basket. Whoever's name is on your piece of paper, they will be your partner for this project."
Naruto frowned when he heard this. He hadn't thought they would have partners, although it made sense now, with the numbering off. But still. He hated projects with partners. They always made him do all the work, and the never stopped being mean to him. 'This is not good. The only person I can hope for is Sasuke, and what are the chances of that? There're ten other people drawing. Shit!' His mind was racing, and he found himself unable to suppress the horrible sense of impending doom rising in his chest. He thought he might vomit.
'Last time I had a project with a partner, that jerk destroyed my house. I'm so screwed.' He could feel the bile rising in his throat, and he knew that all the blood had drained from his face. He couldn't work with a partner, he couldn't. He didn't even notice when Sasuke began shaking him, calling his name in an attempt to bring him back into reality.
3333333333333
Sasuke frowned. Something was the matter with Naruto. The blonde had suddenly gone extremely pale, and he kept gulping. His blue eyes were wide and his pupils had all but disappeared. Sasuke shook him harder, calling his name loudly.
It wasn't until he'd called Naruto's name six times that the blonde snapped out of his stupor, his pupil's dilating immediately as he visibly tanned and turned his head towards Sasuke. "Huh?" His voice was soft, as if he had no idea what was going on. Sasuke smiled.
"We're partners," he said softly, handing Naruto one of the assignment synopses he' been given. "We have to spend time studying each other objectively for two weeks, and then we have to write about one specific characteristic of our partner. We can use any form of writing we choose, as long as we thoroughly describe what we have learned about our partner."
For a moment, Naruto just stared blankly, but then a bright smile spread over his features, and he heaved what seemed to be a relieved sigh. "So I have to write something about one single specific aspect of your personality after getting to know you for two weeks?" Sasuke nodded. "Well then. It's a good thing I got you as my partner. No one else in this class would let me within twenty feet of them with attempting to beat the crap out of me."
Naruto sounded relieved, and there was a smile plastered across his face, but his eyes had grown sad, turning a shade darker and glistening dangerously. Sasuke felt a pinch in his chest and was forced to acknowledge it as sorrow and anger on the blonde's behalf. It was odd. He'd never really felt...anything towards anyone else, not even his own family. Sure, he was gad to have Sakura as a friend, and he liked her as a person, but he doubted he could feel any sort of real emotion on her behalf. He'd almost begun thinking that he was incapable of feelings of this sort, but then came Naruto with his tragic past and his sad smiles, and here Sasuke was, feeling pangs of hurt inside his chest. It was most definitely not normal.
Suddenly there was a palm waving in front of his face, and a very confused Naruto was calling his name.
3333333333333
"Sasuke. Come in Sasuke. Earth to Uchiha." Naruto was waving his hands in front of Sasuke's face, trying to bring him out of the trance that had seemingly been brought on by Naruto's comment. The Uchiha had sort of just zoned out, a weird look coming over his face. When he finally snapped out of it, Naruto was forced to suppress a laugh at the look of confusion on Sasuke's face. "You've returned. Where didst thou go?"
For a moment Sasuke didn't say anything, apparently confused, but then he replied, "Nowhere in particular. It's dangerous getting lost inside my mind. I can't afford to stray too far from the world." He was smiling again, and it seemed to Naruto that this was something he didn't do often enough. It almost seemed as if the dark-haired boy was out of practice.
"So," he began, figuring they were supposed to be discussing their project with their partners. "Are we supposed to, like, go to each other's houses and stuff? Or is that too much studying?" He was nervous again. After all, did it really matter that they got along okay? What if he was just that bad at working with other people? What if he was just too stupid for Sasuke once they got to know each other? What if Sasuke hated him again once the project was over? There were so many things to worry about when it came to working with partners, even if he'd gotten the one person who'd ever been civil to him.
Sasuke's mouth twitched upwards into a bit o a smirk. "How are we supposed to get to know each other if we can only see each other in one environment? If we're going to do this project properly, I think it's important that we each observe the other in the private home setting as well as the public school setting. So, no, I don't think that's too much observing."
Naruto nodded, thinking that Sasuke really was right. "So, today is Wednesday, Do you want to come over tomorrow? And then you could stay until Friday, and then I could come to your house over the weekend."
3333333333333
Sasuke thought this suggestion over in his head for a moment before nodding his consent. "I'll talk to my brother tonight, and tomorrow I'll come home with you. Perfect." Naruto looked relieved to hear this. Almost as if he'd feared Sasuke would reject his suggestion. Sasuke just shrugged to himself. The bell rang moments later, and as Naruto was packing hi s bag, Sasuke gave a good humored, "Don't clean for me or anything." Naruto smiled at him.
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"Good."
3333333333333
The rest of the day passed by very quickly, and Naruto found himself quite surprised when the final bell rang. He and Sasuke walked to their locker in companionable silence, and he found himself hard pressed to notice the hundreds of malicious glares being shot in his direction. It seemed he had made himself a friend, and he refused to let people ruin it for him.
They both gathered the books they needed from their locker, and Sasuke clicked it closed as Naruto turned down the hall. He looked back over his shoulder ad gave a happy, "I'll see you tomorrow! And don't pack too heavy, 'cause I walk home, and I ain't carrying your stuff."
Sasuke just shook his head. "I won't, dobe. I'll see you then." This said, Naruto continued walking down the hallway. The way Sasuke had called him dobe had seemed affectionate, as if it were a nickname, not an insult, and Naruto kind of liked it.
When he exited the school, he found himself ignoring everyone, and smiling as he made his way home. He stopped once again at the convenient store and bought another half gallon of milk, and this time, when someone tried to drench him in coffee, he dodged and threw a rock at their retreating back. His cruel neighbor was in her yard again, watering her grass as usual, so when he passed her, he shouted,
"Hey, thanks for the bath yesterday! I really hate that coffee smell." Her face was twisted into a look of utmost constipation when she heard this, and he smiled even more brightly. He climbed his front step, milk in hand, and his key worked on the first try.
Closing the door behind himself, he toed off his shoes and entered hiss small kitchen. He put the milk in the fridge and then entered the bathroom. He had been dreading removing his bandage all day, so he decided just to get it over with now. He rolled his pant leg up and carefully removed the medical tape. He winced as the gauze pulled with it several pieces of scab, but he refused to cry. Instead, he threw the dirtied bandage in the trash, cleaned his wound with a black rag, and pulled out the Neosporin and economy sized box of band-aids. He slathered a fresh layer of cream on his wound and then opened three large bandages, placing them over his wound in the same fashion as the night before. This done, he braced himself for cleaning.
He had laundry to do anyways, and despite the fact that he'd promised not to clean, his place was a pig sty. He refused to let anyone see it like this. At least anyone he thought he had a chance at being friends with. He started by dividing his clothes into three piles, not even bothering to divide the lights from the dark. He washed everything on cold anyways.
He carried the pile with the most underwear into the laundry room, which was really nothing more than a corner of the kitchen, and dumped them in the washing machine, filling a cup of detergent and turning it on. On his way back to his bedroom, he detoured through the living room and deliberated over which three CDs to put in the changer. In the end he decided on Smile Empty Soul's self titled album, Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine, and Linkin Park Hybrid Theory. He pressed the shuffle button and turned the volume up as loud as he could without getting a call from the neighbors.
Then, with "Silhouettes" blaring in his ears, he began the task of cleaning his room. He made his bed, deciding that his sheets were clean enough (he'd washed them less than a week ago), and then grabbed a shirt from his dirty clothes pile to dust his chest of drawers, bookshelf, nightstand, and desk with. This done, he decided the area was clean enough and moved into the kitchen.
By the time he finished with the kitchen, he'd finished washing all of his clothes, having breaked to fold and put away the freshly dried clothes, and he was thoroughly pooped. His kitchen had to be the nastiest kitchen known to man kind, not surprisingly since before today, he hadn't cleaned the damn place for half a year (2).
His living room was mostly clean, except for the discarded ramen cups all over the floor, so he grabbed a trash bag and picked up all of he trash. He lightly dusted the bookshelves and CD player, and then decided he was done. He took out all the trash, and then came back inside. The clock read six. He still had to clean the bathroom.
Luckily, the tiny room was not that dirty, and took him a grand total of twenty minutes to clean. That was the last room, and he plopped down on his bed, sighing when he was done. He was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, since he'd been washing all of his other clothes, and he was extremely grungy. He decided to take a shower.
When he went to bed that night, Naruto was wondering what Sasuke would think of his humble little abode. He found himself hoping the dark-haired boy would like it, even if it was small. He really wanted someone to like his house. If they liked his house, they could like him, and it would make everything normal. If Sasuke liked his house, it would mean he wasn't such a horrible atrocity after all, because it would mean he lived like a normal person. At least it would mean Sasuke thought he did, and that's what really mattered.
TBC...
A/N: All righty! Chapter eleven done! All the bands and albums mentioned are real, and not mine, so, yeah. They're all really cool too! Anyways. I hope you enjoyed, despite the choppiness. It was happier this time, although, there was still a little underlying angst. It was just a little. I know after making you wait for so long I probably should have made it longer, but I still wrote it in the same amount of time. I've been distracted this weekend. Today I went to see the Yu Gi Oh movie, and it was awesome. It was absolutely horribly dubbed, but I was sort of imagining the actual version while I was watching it, so I was like "Yay!" (I know I'm a dork, so shut up already) Anyways, sorry it's not longer, and thanks for reading. Next time, Sasuke comes to Naruto's house, I hope y'all like it.
-Sayounara-
P.S. Sorry about all of the cleaning I wrote about. I just felt like telling you what order Naruto cleaned his house in. And it was completely random, wasn't it? Oh well...
ISAN
1. Okay this is French, but I've forgotten how to spell it, forgive my sadness, I take Latin.
2. Okay, I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this is gross. I'm sitting here grossing out at the thought. But, then again, that's the point.