Disclaimer: Naruto as always and forever does not belong to me. It belongs to its creator, Kishimoto Masashi, and the associated companies.
La/-/er- Well, it's a day late, but also 4 pages longer than normal. Although you'll be able to see why after some part... I feel bad for doing this but, well, it's only a day late. And sorry about the weirdness of the chapter, at some point, my brain decided that this was the best road to take and thus, it is highly unlikely that I will be able to change it as in issues like this, I cannot consciously do anything. So I hope you enjoy the chapter! Thanks for reviewing and reading! And please tell me if there's something wrong in this chapter, typos and the like. I wanted to post this before I went to sleep, so it's not as edited.
Review Responses: Unfortunately, I have school life, so, it's ordered by first to review to the last.
ghostninja85- Yes, I think what you were talking about may be Naruto no Hohoemi by Nazo. But then I twisted it, as I indicated in the last chapter and as you'll see in this chapter. A little late, but still, only a couple of days after, not bad, right?
Night-Owl123- A bit late, but the last one was fast cuz I was crazy, lol. Thanks for reviewing!
Cookie6- Yes, yes, it's a good thing you pointed the Sasuke thing out. I did it subconsciously as a further writing thing as you'll see. But you made me really realize it, so thanks. Glad you think it's cute! Making me blush...
Nanashi2- Lol, re-reading your review actually made me calm down a bit. Interesting, since your review was rather perky. Glad you like the scenes I write, most are spontaneous, so I'm glad it turned out good. I should be the one to be shaking your hand. You write nice Yu-gi-oh fanfics! Sign of admiration, hehe, that's cool. And here's the next update, though a bit late.
EscagirlUK- Here's the next one! Definitely writing more.
Blue 1/2- Hum, I was going to e-mail you, but I forgot... Happy you think it's funny. And this has made a bit of people laugh/giggle when they usually don't, I'm glad. Aw, no need to formally grovel! I really don't think it's that awesome. If I had Pocky, however... But yes, here's the next chapter, enjoy!
izumi- Yes, the villagers have nasty minds, lol. Yes, you also point out the best things, same thing as Cookie6, thanks for pointing it out to me. :grin: Glad you think it's funny enough to have your boyfriend look at you funny.
Dark Mimiru-chan- Oh dear, your one-liners keep giving me perverted thoughts. Naughty girl.
Kyuubi-chan- Don't worry, no way am I dropping this. And you'll see about the boys... alright, alright, they're getting together, it's just a matter of time. They do look hot, don't they? Haha, La La Land, did you have fun there?
Sora Kohaku- I think your sentence isn't supposed to make sense, but for some reason, I totally get what you said, and you're completely right. It's so hard not to rub our hands in glee. (maniacal laughter)
AnimeFreakPerson- :bows: Thank you, thank you. Well, is 3-4 days soon enough? And brave is good!
Spooy- Some people would've, and I wasn't exactly saying it very er... pleasantly. Yes, nice breeze when he sleeps. Hehe, you think it's cute. That's great! And I hope you read the third chapter, as this is the fourth.
YaoiLoverS- Nobody actually said it, I just know some people don't like it. And I feel the same way too. I get on a little high when I see my penname on the screen. Lol. Need more tissues?
Nuppu- They are cute, and they don't even know it. Great plot? This doesn't really have one... Well, I wrote this chapter over a span of 2 days... so, hum, well anywayz! Here's the next one!
Seito- (Take that Seika!) Ooo pure genius, that's nice... didn't I say that about you? Erm, yes here's the next one that I'm writing in while ignoring the need to review Yoake Mae chapter 4.
Aimi-chan- Hehe, not having sex, not yet anyway. I suppose you can't haunt me... We must celebrate! Killua/Gon is like THE best pairing out there. (Even better than sasunaru...:shifty eyes: those two have issues, alright, K/G is like pure) Aw, I was hoping you had some. I goggle'd, but didn't find anything and I read all the stories here. The ones that are here are pretty nice though. And I have the same feeling, I'm too afraid of butchering their characters to write it as well. Pooie, no K/G fics. I demand you to write one! I hold chapter 5 ransom!
Yuen-chan-Haha! Bad thoughts! And yes, my poor name is all, ew, now. You know what's interesting though? Your penname holds the second part of my real name... O.o
foxylittlechibi- Really, not laughed so hard in ages! You need to laugh more then! I will provide! For as long as I can anyway... Oh, that's different. I will take care and keep cool. The fan helps.
Finally finished! Whee! That took... half an hour, wow. And these responses were shorter than normal. Anywayz, a day late, but here we are, chapter 4!
Delicious Revenge --- Chapter IV --- The La/-/er
The Push Over
Today is to be set as quite a memorable day.
There are two reasons for that.
The first and most important reason that was to be passed down for generations to come was that this was the day when Rokuda-- er Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke started publicly going out. Never mind that it wouldn't be true for another few weeks.
The other reason was that this was the first time the two boys met with their fan clubs' presidents as their acting presidents. And Yamanaka Ino. You can't forget her.
Never mind that it wasn't the most happiest of meetings, nor the calmest, it was still the first.
And sad to say, the only, but that's another story for another time. Oh no... wait, it's part of this story too.
As we were leading towards, indeed, this was to be an unforgettable day. Especially to Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke.
Sasuke's ---------- POV-ish
Finally managing to gather all those responsible for starting the rumor in the first place, Sasuke's deceptively calm mood was wrecked as he pasted on his fiercest Death Glare (tm of Heero Yuy of GW/AC) onto his face and directed it towards the three teenagers.
As many of you had probably noticed, upon reaching Naruto's apartment, his reaction to the rumor was minimal. As it was, he was too focused upon teasing Naruto.
After all, seeing Naruto pout and groan in frustration was rather... distracting. And his frantic pacing caused a bit of his clothes to raise up. And when Naruto picked his head back up after burying it in his arms, he had this absolutely adorable mussed-up-hair kind of face that made him just want to melt.
But now was not the time nor place to discuss Naruto's cuteness.
No, now was the time to inform the girls in front of him politely about Naruto and his non-existent relationship.
That's right, politely.
Aw, to hell with polite, he was going to rip them apart. (1)
He could just imagine now the reaction of his fan club. And now that Naruto had one too...
Sasuke shuddered at the thought. There was no way in hell that he would willingly put up with the living nightmare that was bound to come.
Well... maybe if Naruto was...
No. No way. Totally not thinking about that.
A pause.
Maybe later.
Sasuke tried to shake the thoughts out of his head, but quite obviously, he failed.
Nevertheless, he was determined to force the girls to see the truth, no matter what it took.
----------
Throughout all of Sasuke's silent pondering the three teenaged girls waited to see the reactions of the two boys. What they had told everyone was vastly important and they knew that they would not have gone through the day without confronting the two at least once.
They knew that, but they didn't expect what came next.
When Sasuke first glared at the three girls, they sported puzzled looks upon their faces. While they understood that the boys might not have been totally happy about their relationship being forced out into the open, they didn't expect to receive a Death Glare (tm)!
With slight apprehension, they watched as Sasuke opened his mouth. And immediately cringed at his tone.
"My dear friends, if I may ask, what is the deal with the rumor that is going around about mine and Naruto's relationship?"
While the volume of his voice was quite normal, his tone was chilling, cold to the core and then some.
As brave as the two of them were, Sakura and Ino could only gape at the tone of his words while Hinata decided to answer.
"Sasuke-kun, I know that this was probably not the best way to tell the village of your relationship with Naruto-kun, but we believed that it would have been best if it was out in the open. Something like this should not be kept secret." Hinata spoke with a soft, calm tone, knowing that at this time, it was best to be passive.
It was a rather good thing that it was Hinata that spoke, for at her words, both Sasuke and Naruto, who was pacing in the background, relaxed slightly, but not by much.
Speaking once again in a tone that was only slightly warmer than the last, Sasuke continued to glare at the three.
"Perhaps you thought it would've been the best. But I don't think you realize that in order for it to be the best, it would have to be true."
At his words, the girls donned a confused look.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, but even as she spoke, understanding dawned upon her.
"I mean that Naruto and I am not, never have, been in a romantic relationship. Together." Sasuke said with a stern voice, willing them to believe him.
However, even he knew that all hope would be lost as sympathetic looks fell unto the three girls.
Naruto, seeing this, barged into the circle they had unconsciously formed, loudly proclaiming, "Sasuke and I never were in a relationship! We're not trying to hide it! We're not ashamed! We don't care if everyone knew. But we're not in one!" By the time he finished, he began to breath heavily, seemingly on the edge of hyperventilating.
Looking over at him worriedly, Sasuke punched him on his arm, following it up with a, "Calm down idiot, getting all excited isn't going to help."
And so Naruto calmed, by a teensy bit.
Not bothering to try to calm him down more, Sasuke turned back to the girls. "Do you understand? It's not that we don't want anyone to know, but the truth is, there is nothing to know!"
Unfortunately, his persuasive skills seemed to need more work, as the three sitting in front of him only shook their heads in what seemed to be pity.
Ino, deciding that now was a good time to input her opinion spoke. "You don't have to hide it anymore Sasuke-kun, we know the truth. We heard the two of you yesterday. You really shouldn't be trying to deny your relationship with Naruto-kun, it's not healthy for the two of you. The best thing--"
"Yesterday?" A puzzled look took its place on Sasuke's face before his previous words came back to him.
He groaned before saying, "I know what you're talking about. For your information, despite what it may have sounded like, Naruto and I were not having sex yesterday. And how did you know about it anyway?"
Ino looked at him curiously, "When Kiba-kun was going over to Naruto-kun's house, he heard the noises and thought it would be best to inform me. I must say he did the right thing."
A blink before Sasuke responded, "Kiba? He told you about what we were doing? Didn't you realize we weren't having sex?"
"That's right! Sasuke was helping me assemble my new bed and mattress!" Seemingly intent on proving his innocence, his virgin innocence, thank you very much, Naruto jumped into the conversation.
"I don't think that making a bed would really create the noises that I heard yesterday. Really, you guys should come up with better excuses, if you want us to even remotely believe you."
"But it's true! If you come to my apartment, you'll see that my bed is new. I just bought it yesterday!"
"Naruto... we've never been to your house before. We wouldn't know what your old bed would look like. And for all we know, you could've bought it a few days ago and it would still look new. You'll have to come up with something better than that." Sakura deducted quite intelligently, even if it was wrong.
"I don't have to come up with anything, since it's TRUE!" Once again, Naruto seemed to have gone overboard with his reactions. One would wonder why he was so anxious.
"Why are you so uptight anyway? Even if it wasn't true, if, why would you be objecting to it so much? Unless of course, it is true, but you're so concentrated on denying it that you don't realize that it makes us suspicious and thus know definitely that you guys are dating." Sakura said this in a rush, as if her brilliant thoughts were just begging to come out to solidify her theory. (2)
There was a confused look on Naruto's face as he tried to understand what she had said before he exclaimed, "I'm not protesting so much because I'm trying to deny it! I'm protesting it because it's not true!" He gave a frustrated sigh before sitting smack down on the ground.
"I give up."
With a sigh, Sasuke attempted to pick up where Naruto left off. By this time, the rage that was simmering beneath his skin began to die off, rather then grow.
He never knew trying to convince (what appeared to be) rabid yaoi fan girls that what they thought was wrong was so hard to do.
Sasuke attempted to try one last time, if this didn't work, he didn't know what would.
"You guys think that Naruto and I have been together for a while and just didn't want to tell anyone, right?"
A series of nods came from the girls.
"Well, what would you say if I told you that up until last week, I was actually dating someone?"
There was a moment of silence before a gasp was heard from Sakura. "What did you just say?" said with wide eyes, it was apparent that she couldn't believe what she had just heard.
"I said that there's no way that Naruto and I could've been together since up until recently, I was dating someone else." Sasuke said calmly, with no sign of dishonesty, not even a twitch of an eye.
A glance towards Naruto showed that he was stunned beyond words. It was apparent that he knew nothing of what Sasuke said, whether it be a fact or an excuse.
Almost certain that the words he spoke were simply an excuse - a horrible one, but one nevertheless - Sakura and Ino narrowed their eyes in suspicion as Hinata merely looked on in curiosity.
"If what you say is true, who have you been seeing? And why didn't we know?" Sakura demanded Sasuke to explain. And knowing that if he didn't, they wouldn't believe, he spoke.
Although there was still a niggling feeling that they wouldn't believe it. To be honest, at times, neither did he.
"You didn't know because the two of us made sure to be careful. And we weren't going out for very long."
Recognizing that Sasuke was trying to stall, Ino impatiently broke in.
"Are you going to tell us who she is or what?"
"I never said I was dating a girl." There was a hint of smugness in his voice.
But why would Sasuke be smug?
At his words, expressions of surprise appeared as they believed that Sasuke was trying to prove that was straight and not dating Naruto. They didn't expect that he only wanted to prove that he wasn't dating Naruto. But this meant that he really was gay...
It seemed that Sasuke's stalling was agitating even the calm Hinata, for she exclaimed loudly, "Sasuke-kun, would you please just tell us who you were dating?"
"Gaara."
A simple name, and a mere two syllables, but it created reactions and expressions from the four present that they had not expected to feel when they had come.
Shock, surprise, confusion, hints of disgust, feelings of being lost, bits of fear, and anger. Most importantly, anger.
There was a stunned moment of silence before their emotions were let out.
"WHAT! Gaara!"
"You've got to be kidding!"
"Are you not feeling well, Sasuke?" This earned a roll of the eyes from the boy.
And finally a reaction that was quite unexpected, but perhaps shouldn't have been. Coming from the president of his fan club, it was something that she held a role in playing. Righteous anger on his behalf. Although the fact that Sakura was releasing the anger onto the person who she felt it for was rather puzzling.
"This is not something to be joked about, Sasuke." Not attaching an honorific to his name in her anger, her tone also took on a cold chill, one that was quite similar to the voice that Sasuke had spoken in moments before.
Startled at the tone of her voice and the implication her words held, the other four could only look on and listen as she continued.
"I understand that you do not want anyone to know of your relationship with Naruto. But to shove something like this in our faces!" There was a pause as she seemed to attempt to rein in her emotions.
"Gaara may not be who he had been, but there is no excuse to use the boy as your flimsy attempt in weaseling out of the truth. Using another's name like that is absolutely disgusting. And even if you were to use this excuse as a way out, you must've know that we would not believe you. To think that Uchiha Sasuke had to speak such ridiculous lies makes me question what is going on with you. I can't look at you right now. I hope that by the time I see you again, you will have thought out what is the right thing to do in this situation."
With that, Sakura flounced away from the clearing. Exuding an aura of righteous anger, it was hard to describe her speech as something idiotic as it was obvious that she seemed to believe every word that came out of her mouth.
In no shape to think of anything else but the words and the execution of her words, they barely noticed Sakura's departure.
And as such, they never noticed the smile playing on her lips.
----------
Disbanding the group after Sakura left, Sasuke and Naruto returned to the apartment with nothing to show for their meeting. Nothing but the feelings left over.
On Naruto's part, shock of Sasuke's confession and fatigue at the thoughts of the days to come.
On Sasuke's part, slight confusion at Sakura's reaction and anxiety of the days to come.
There was, yet again, a moment of silence between the two of them before Naruto, deciding that silence is indeed not golden, spoke up.
"I'm not sure if I should be asking you this," Naruto said with a slightly nervous laugh, "but were you telling the truth back there?"
"Hmm? Which part?"
"I suppose everything that you said."
"Ah, but what you really want to know is if I really went out with Gaara."
"Just about, yeah."
"Well, I suppose you'll never know as I'm not about to tell you." A look of complacent pleasure lazed across the features of the pale boy. "Or, I suppose if you really want to know, you can just ask Gaara yourself."
Naruto gaped at Sasuke for a moment, mouth hanging, exposing all the teeth in his mouth. And he had quite a bit.
"Nani! Why won't you tell me?" Naruto whined. (3)
Sasuke smiled before smirking once more, "Because it's fun to tease you. And since the next few days are going to be hell, I'm taking all the chances I can get to have fun."
"Eh? What do you mean the next few weeks are going to be hell?"
Sasuke laughed, a nice pleasant laugh that ran through the room, before getting up and heading towards to door.
"You'll find out later today, if not tomorrow. I'm going to go home, try not to leave your house too much if you know what's good for you."
And with that, the door closed behind him and Naruto was left alone in the apartment.
'Stupid bastard, telling me to stay at home like a coward while he goes out. Who does he think I am!'
And with that, Naruto also got up and left the house. A foolish thing to do as he found out in mere moments.
----------
The next few weeks did indeed feel like hell to the two boys. But while they were in hell, most of the village was in heaven. To them, Sasuke and Naruto seemed like a match in heaven. While Naruto was calmed by Sasuke, Sasuke was more active as a result of being dragged with Naruto quite almost everywhere.
At least he was until the two of them got jumped one fine afternoon.
It is quite a story, a long one yet so very short and a tale that was--
Ah, you want to hear the story? No matter what? Well, if you wish it.
It was two days after that fateful day. (The fateful day being the day on which the meeting was held.)
And quite wonderfully, it was a wonderful afternoon.
With the sun shining and clouds drifting across the light blue sky. Squirrels squirreling, or doing what ever it is squirrels do. Eat acorns or something, so it is believed. Although what people do not realize is that what squirrels are actually doing as they hopped fences and traveled across lawns, up trees, into houses, wherever you see them was collecting data of the terrain. Indeed the squirrels have been and is continuing to plot to take over the human world. With a bit more mapping, they would be able to create a diagram that showed every inch, every centimeter of the human world.
If only they would stop changing things around as soon as they were close to finishing.
Those darn humans! They probably suspected and thus grew more trees, cut down others, knocked down buildings and built others. Created roads where there weren't any and doing something to those already existing. Darn them! And we the squirrels were so close!
Eh? What? Oh, so terribly sorry, wandered off track, did we?
So anyway, birds chirping at what seemed to be every available tree space. Branches filled with leaves and those not filled. The rooftops of every house, the open windows of every building. The chirping overfilled the sounds of nature, drowning out all other noises. Distracting all the humans from noticing the squirreling squirrels that were yet again so close to success.
Birds of every shape, size and color. And what colors there were! Bright ones, dark ones, those that blended, those that stood out. The birds continued to create a racket the caused the whole town of Konoha to---
Oh dear, we did it again. Our apologies, now, where were we?
So it was a quite wonderful day. With nature in harmony with humans and humans in harmony with nature. Thoughts of goodwill floated through the town, infecting all that spoke, all that heard, all that saw, and all that felt.
On this absolutely wonderful day, Sasuke and Naruto decided to venture out into the open, wanting to spar to stretch those bit of muscle that cramped up during the two days they were hidi-- um, protecting themselves from the fan girls that were at their heels.
But they could not stay holed up any longer and so they traveled to the field they had always trained at, believing that the most obvious place was therefore the safest.
Normally this was true. But we all know that Sasuke and Naruto do not follow normal ways.
And so, they were jumped.
But we're jumping ahead of ourselves, so we'll back up a bit.
The two boys had peaceful morning. Sort of. If you counted waking up in complete darkness as a result of the curtains being pulled peaceful. And slight pitter patters outside the doors indicating that people were waiting out there.
Obsessive weirdos.
Anyways, in a series of hidden notes, Sasuke and Naruto had agreed to meet that day to spar a little. See each other as well, as they had missed each other. Not that they would admit it. Never.
Which is exactly why after sneaking underground to reach a spot 2 miles from the clearing and then running around the clearing to shake off the remaining followers, the two embraced each other with strong emotions bordering on bliss.
Of course they didn't miss each other.
So after that little embrace they both agreed to deny about, all the while not noticing a little invention named the camera was hiding a little ways away, the two began to spar.
And blah blah blah. This is a humor/romance fiction. Not an action one, read a fight somewhere else.
So during the middle of their spar, there was a pause in their flurry of fists and kunai, in which there was immediately a war cry.
Or what sounded like one.
Out from the surrounding trees, two teenage girls jumped out and down towards the unsuspecting boys, somehow managing to maneuver their bodies in such a way that they were able to cause the boys to fall towards each other.
As such, they created this nice little pile of boy, boy, squealing girl, girl.
On the very bottom, Sasuke bore a rather annoyed face that for a split second had a rather pleased look.
And we won't tell you why he was pleased as you should already know.
So that was the story of Sasuke and Naruto getting jumped, rather short, isn't it?
Oh yes, there was one more thing though.
After Sasuke and Naruto got jumped, they left the two girls to go hoem only to leave the next day to go out to eat.
And they got jumped at Ichiraku as well.
So they didn't get to eat as they had to run home when the girls decided to congratulate them. Several times.
They expressed their glee by telling them how wonderful and cute it was that they finally got together.
Of course, the two boys made faces at them as they said it.
The girls thought it was cute that they were doing the same thing.
They asked for them to kiss. Just one or two. Or maybe make-out.
They were willing to pay.
The boys protested and said, "No way possible." Quite in unison.
The girls aw'ed and Sasuke and Naruto ran away.
It was getting too gushy.
In their hurry to get away, the two never noticed.
They didn't see the foot that a girl had stuck out.
And so Naruto tripped.
And guess what?
Sasuke turned around to see what was going on.
And he caught him, oh yes he did.
Arms with arms, legs with legs.
And most importantly, lips to lips.
Yes indeedy, it was another accidental kiss.
But quite different.
Oh yes.
Because instead of pulling away from each other in disgust, do you know what they did?
Yup, they started kissing each other.
It started getting heavy. Tongues were getting involved and all.
But then there was a flash and the two broke away.
They stared at each other for a moment, not daring to say a word. Then they jerked away from each other, getting up and all, when there was another flash.
Faces flushing the two hurried away from the street, each departing to their own houses to think long and deep. After suffereing a couple of days like this, they each departed their houses to consult with their mentors. And despite popular belief... they didn't help at all.
To Be Continued...
(1) You may think this is an awfully extreme reaction, but ever heard of the phrase, "The lady doth protests too much"? ...Or something like that. That's right, he's still in denial, no matter what else goes on, he will be. For a little while more anyway... Besides, think of what the yaoi fan girls would do, in fact, just think of what you would do, lol.
(2) Besides that I don't know what I just wrote here, it's also a reference to the same thing in note 1. The whole 'protesting too much means that it's true' thing.
(3) Yes, yes I know, unnecessary Japanese, but right here, nani sounds so much better than what, doesn't it?
La/-/er- Ah, I'm a bad girl, I left the Gaara issue alone. Well, the next chapter, most of you will like. It should come within a week or so. I have school and all that. Oh wait, Jewish holiday on Thursday and Friday. Maybe by the end of this week then. But I have to write chapter 8 of Without Life, so maybe not. We'll see. Definitely by next Monday though. (The notes here and up there are different from normal as I wrote them after I was finished with the chapter and was in a hurry to post.)
Did you guys notice where I had left for a little while and then came back to write? It's turns different. I ate. Maybe I shouldn't eat and write...
Alright, review and tell me what you thought!
Edited: 4/27/05