(Author's Note: Thanks for the review! Please remember to review if you're reading.
Disclaimer (applies to all chapters): Naruto and all related characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto.
Warning: YAOI, YURI, sex, drugs, violence, rape, etc. etc. The fic is rated 'M' for a reason.)
And the Beat Goes On
Chapter 2: Emotional Crescendo
Science class was, once again, hot, sticky and utterly boring. The fan on the overhead whirred continuously and the curtains had been drawn. It was the perfect atmosphere to encourage the students, even the more academically inclined ones, to give way to the growing feeling of exhaustion.
Naruto tried very hard to keep his bleary eyes open, although they felt very heavy and sandy. He tried to convince himself that the desk didn't make all that great of a pillow, but it wasn't working. The teacher's dull, monotone voice sounded like it had dust in it. Combined with the whirring of the fan, it was like a lullaby.
Naruto glanced about him as best he could without lifting his head. About half the class looked like they were asleep, and the other half was on the verge of going there. The teacher kept droning on and on, as if he didn't notice, or he didn't care. Naruto supposed it was the latter. What did it matter to the teacher that half the class failed because they kept falling asleep in class?
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sakura and Ino giggling over something. They kept passing a piece of paper between them, reading it, then writing something down and passing it back to the other, who proceeded to giggle over whatever was written, then write a reply and pass it back for the other girl to giggle over. It was like some sort of. . .weird. . .girl. . .ritual or something. Naruto closed his eyes. He wasn't even thinking clearly any more.
Just as he was about to drift to sleep, the bell rang, shattering the peace of the room and making him bolt upright into a sitting position. He blinked several times over, trying to discern what had happened. Students brushed by him and he realized they'd been dismissed by the loud clanging noise. He sighed, feeling stupid for being startled.
A shadow suddenly eclipsed any light that had been in the room. Everything was rather . . .dark. Naruto looked up. Speaking of dark. . .
Sasuke was glaring down at him. He said nothing, though. "What do you want?" Naruto ground out.
Sasuke looked thoughtful for a moment, as though he were trying to transpose from intelligent language to Naruto's form of 'speech', also known as 'idiot.' "You and I need to work on the assignment," he said at last, somehow not grimacing at the thought of what said assignment involved.
Naruto decided then that Sasuke was not only a bastard and a jerk, but also an ice cube, and not even a human one at that. He was like some other form of life that had been chipped out of a glacier. "Yeah, whatever," Naruto mumbled, feigning indifference.
He rested his head on his arms, only to be prodded roughly in the arm. He glared up at Sasuke. "Unlike you," the dark-haired boy growled, "I want to pass that English course. I'm not going to fail because you can't do your share of the work."
Naruto glared, turned his head to the side and mumbled, "Geez, who died and made you king of the earth?"
Someone cleared their throat and both boys glanced at the doorway, where the teacher was standing. He cleared his throat again and made a gesture. "If you boys wouldn't mind taking this into the hall," he said, as monotone as ever. Naruto wondered briefly if he talked like that all the time.
"Sure, sure, whatever," Naruto muttered, realizing he was the one holding them up.
He picked up his stuff and bolted from the room, hoping to lose Sasuke in the process. Needless to say, it didn't work. Sasuke was standing right beside him when he stopped. Not only was Sasuke annoying, he was also annoyingly persistent. Naruto started walking again, hoping that if he ignored Sasuke, Sasuke would just. . .go away.
Every time he glanced to his right, Sasuke was still there, keeping pace with him, looking as stoic as ever. Naruto halted and turned to the other boy, screaming, "Stop following me, you freak!"
The few girls still lingering in the halls turned to glare at the blond. He ignored them. He was too annoyed to care. He continued to yell at Sasuke. "Leave me alone! I don't care about the stupid project! Go away! I don't want to be stalked, especially not by you!"
"We have to work on the project. I'm not going to fail."
Naruto tore at his hair. "Gah! You didn't hear a word I said, did you! Go! Away! Shoo! Get! Leave!"
"We have to work on the project," Sasuke repeated.
Naruto gave up. "Fine! Whatever! We'll work on the stupid project! Just so long as you leave me alone!"
Naruto swore he saw Sasuke's lips twitch with the hint of a smirk.
Two hours later, one throughly annoyed, exasperated, angered and down-right irate Naruto was standing in the middle of his bedroom floor, arms folded across his chest. His face was like a storm cloud. Anger snapped in his eyes.
And it wasn't just the fact that Sasuke had pissed him off. Oh no, it went deeper than that. It was worse than that, more humiliating than that. It was that said Sasuke was currently standing there with him, pinning the cloth of the material that was now allegedly a dress. While he was wearing it.
Naruto huffed and Sasuke prodded him again, reminding him that he needed to stay still. Sasuke was currently speech-impaired, as he was holding several needles in his mouth. The ebony-haired boy was currently stitching a red ribbon to the material.
After a lengthy, rather one-sided argument, the conclusion had been reached that Naruto would be playing the part of Juliet. As a result, most of the protesting had been from Naruto, claiming that it wasn't fair and that he didn't want to play a girl.
Not realizing he was pouting, he huffed again, mumbling, "It's not fair."
Sasuke made a rather muffled attempt to say something, which could have been, "Shut up."
Naruto, of course, did the exact opposite, complaining loudly. "It's not fair! How come I have to wear the stupid dress? I don't wanna play Juliet! This assignment is so stupid! I don't wanna wear a dress!"
Sasuke pricked him with one of the needles. "Shut up, idiot," he hissed.
"Why should I listen to you! This is all your fault!"
"My fault? How is this my fault?"
Naruto thought for a moment. It wasn't really Sasuke's fault, but hey, he needed someone to blame and right then, it seemed fitting to blame Sasuke. "It's your fault I'm in this dress!" Naruto screeched.
Sasuke sighed, rolled his eyes, shook his head and went back to his sewing. "Idiot," he grumbled.
Naruto sulked. "This is so dumb. Whoever thought of this project should be shot. Why do I have to work with you?"
"I have to work with you," Sasuke muttered, prodding Naruto with one of the needles again. "Now, stay still."
Iruka shut the door as gently as he could, not wishing to let it crash and risk waking Naruto (who, by all rights, should have been in bed). Not saying that Naruto was easily woken; Iruka swore that boy could sleep through a tornado.
Nonetheless, he shut the door quietly in the event that Naruto wasn't asleep and would be alerted to the noise downstairs.
Quite honestly, Iruka didn't want Naruto to see him then. He was exuberant, ecstatic and a hundred other things. He was quite sure he was blushing. He probably had a silly grin plastered on his face. He sighed happily and laughed at himself for being so stupid. He was acting like a school girl. Frankly, at the moment, he didn't care.
Why was he in such a state? He'd just spent the evening with Hatake Kakashi. It hadn't really been a date or anything of that nature, but it was more than enough for Iruka. Heck, just being near the man was more than enough for Iruka.
Which was another reason Iruka didn't want to encounter Naruto at the moment. He didn't really want to explain why he was so happy. He wasn't exactly sure how Naruto would react to the idea that he was infatuated with another man. The news could possibly make Naruto alienate him and he didn't want that.
He paused and listened to the house. There wasn't a sound to be heard. He decided to head upstairs and make sure Naruto was still living. The blond wasn't exactly the. . .safest person in the world.
He reached the top of the stairs and opened the door to Naruto's bedroom. He was fully prepared to see Naruto, curled up in his bed, sound asleep. However, he wasn't prepared for what he did see.
Naruto was sitting on the bed, in something that faintly resembled a dress. Not only that, but Uchiha Sasuke was sitting on the bed with him. Both were blushing furiously and pointedly not looking at each other. Between them lay an open copy of "Romeo and Juliet".
Had Iruka been aware of what the boys had been actually trying to accomplish, he wouldn't have been so shocked when Naruto grumbled, "You kiss by the book."
As it were, Iruka nearly had a heart attack. Had Naruto just said! That meant -
"Oh. My. God."
He didn't know why he was so disturbed by this. Perhaps it was the fact that this was Naruto and Sasuke they were talking about? The two were complete opposites and -
Both boys had whipped about to look at him. Naruto had paled visibly, his eyes wide. Sasuke's expression wasn't as openly surprised as Naruto's, but shocked nonetheless.
Naruto began waving his hands about frantically. "This isn't what it looks like!" he yelped, having no idea what Iruka actually thought it looked like, but having a vague guess.
"You. . .you. . ."
"I swear, this isn't -"
"You swing that way!" Iruka managed finally.
"No!" Naruto yelled defensively, waving his hands about frantically, nearly hitting Sasuke in the face.
"You and Sasuke. . .who would have thought -"
"What are you talking about! I'm not -"
Sasuke decided he'd had enough of the seemingly random bits of argument. "We were practising for a play," he said, quietly and rather blandly.
Naruto shut up and looked at him. Iruka looked at him curiously, then smiled slyly and winked. "Sure, boys. Whatever you say."
And with that, he slowly started to shut the door. He quickly reopened it though, glaring at Sasuke. "Don't you dare lay a finger on him, or -"
Iruka wasn't able to finish his threat, for some reason, and quickly shut the door. Naruto buried his head in his hands. "I've never been so humiliated," he groaned.
Sasuke just sort of. . .sat there, like an ice cube of sorts. "Well," he said finally, "that was odd."
Naruto glared at him from between his fingers. "That was odd? That's all you have to say! Not something like, what is wrong with that guy! Is he crazy!"
Sasuke said nothing, but rather looked at the clock, reading the numerals emblazoned in red. "Hnn. I think I'll be leaving now," he said, getting up off the bed.
"Good riddance," Naruto mumbled.
"Not even going to bid your guest goodnight? Hnn. Oh well. It's to be expected," Sasuke said snidely, the hint of a smirk playing on his lips.
And with that, he fled the room. Naruto sat on his bed, fuming. "Ooooh, I am so going to kill him."
- - -
"And just where have you been?"
Sasuke said nothing, merely walking wearily by his brother. Itachi glared after his younger sibling. "Answer me, Sasuke. It's nearly midnight. Where have you been?"
"At a friend's," Sasuke mumbled at last, turning to glare. "Since when do you care what I do anyway?"
Itachi rolled his eyes. "I don't. It's just not normal for you to stay - Did you say you went to a friend's?"
The older Uchiha blinked in complete surprise. Sasuke sighed and nodded. Itachi frowned. "Since when do you have friends?"
Sasuke glared at him from the stairwell. "I'm tired. I'm going to bed," he growled. Why did Itachi have to be so infuriating?
"Fine. Whatever."
"Good night."
"Good night."
Sasuke climbed the stairs. Itachi yelled after him, "Don't let the bed bugs bite!"
"Shut up!" Sasuke hollered back, storming into his room and slamming the door. Why did Itachi only take interest in what he was doing when he could be annoying?
He sprawled out on the bed, brows furrowed in anger. Itachi never paid any attention to him when he wanted to be paid attention to. It was always, "later" or "not now" or something like that. Itachi never had time for him and it made him mad. They were supposed to be brothers, right? And that made them family. And family looked out for each other.
Especially since the other family members were dead or lived too far away and only called once every couple of years to make sure they were still alive. Sasuke sighed and rolled over, glancing at the picture on his bedside table.
They'd been family there. Both himself and Itachi looked so happy. . .so young and stupid, he thought with a bitter smile. Since their parents had died in that plane crash, both boys had seemingly grown up in too short a time span and become alienated from each other. Sometimes, he wondered if Itachi really was his brother.
Faintly, he heard the sad melancholy of violin music rising from the downstairs. Half of him was tempted to yell at Itachi to shut up, as it was "so late", but the other half of him just wanted to lie there and listen. The music seemed to synchronize with his feelings at the moment, so he lay and listened. In the end, it was the sad tune that lulled him into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Sakura and Ino were still giggling, even though it was long past midnight. Mrs. Yamanaka had been by several times to tell them to be quiet. Every time they managed to settle down, one of them said something and they started laughing all over again.
Wiping tears from their eyes, they settled back into their sleeping bags. They were silent for a moment or two, the occasional giggle escaping their mouths.
Sakura rolled over to face the blonde girl. "Hey, Ino?"
"Yeah. What?"
"How. . .how do you think Sasuke's project is going?"
Ino glanced over at the pink-haired girl. "I don't know. . .he does have to work with Naruto, after all."
Sakura glanced about almost fearfully. "Do. . .do you think he. . ."
She sighed and rolled back over. "Never mind," she muttered.
Ino sat up. "Do I think he what? Honestly Sakura, don't do that."
Sakura sighed again and asked softly, "Do you think. . .he'd like kissing Naruto?"
Ino made a face. "Ew! Sakura! How could you even think that!"
"Well. . .he certainly doesn't seem to think about kissing girls," she said at last.
"He's just shy! And even if he doesn't want to kiss girls, why would he want to kiss boys?" She made her disgusted face again. "Honestly, that's just wrong."
Sakura nodded. "Yes. Yes, it is wrong."
They both started giggling again, out of nervousness, for neither really knew what else to say. And then, their laughter was genuine, for they didn't know what they were laughing about in the first place, which in itself was funny.
The thought of boys kissing boys and liking it was pushed to the very backs of their minds.
The thought of boys kissing boys and liking it, however, wasn't the farthest thing from Naruto's mind.
He had gone to bed about an hour ago, only to toss and turn. His mind was churning with a thousand new ideas and feelings and he wasn't sure how to react. His stomach was tying itself into knots for some reason.
So, Sasuke had kissed him. Big deal. It had just been a quick brush of lips against lips, and that was it. But the thing that scared him was that such a simple action had sent sparks of. . .electric feeling jolting through him. And it shouldn't have. He should have been mad and angry and disgusted, but he wasn't.
Instead, he felt. . .he didn't know how he felt. That was the problem in a nutshell. He knew how he was supposed to feel, but he felt different and he didn't know how he felt. He sighed and turned over again.
Had he liked Sasuke kissing him? He wanted to say he hadn't, but then he'd be lying because he wasn't sure. . . He was chasing himself about in circles now. His head felt all muddled and confused. Did liking the kiss make him. . .well, gay?
He sat up. "Stupid Sasuke," he muttered, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.
Unfortunately, he hadn't realized how tangled the sheets had become and consequently, fell flat on his face, taking most of the contents of the bed with him. "Ow," he muttered to the floorboards.
He untangled himself and padded downstairs, his mind still reeling. He'd never been kissed before, so he had nothing to compare this to, had nothing to allow him to make a decision that he did or didn't like it. True, it had felt. . .kind of nice, but then again, kisses were supposed to feel nice, or so he guessed. People wouldn't do it if it hurt.
He made his way into the kitchen, with the intention of getting a glass of water. He stood at the kitchen sink for a long time (it was actually five minutes or so), letting the water run. He wished that his problems could be washed away like that - just disappear down the drain.
He really, really hoped that he didn't like that kiss. He didn't want to be. . .different. Everybody already hated him. What would they think of him if it turned out he had liked that kiss and he liked boys and not girls?
He shook his head. He was pretty sure he didn't like boys, in that manner. After all, he thought Sakura was pretty and she was a girl. He nodded to himself, feeling satisfied he'd come to a conclusion. He liked girls.
He filled a glass with water and turned to leave the kitchen.
But then again, he remembered thinking to himself, on more than one occasion, Sasuke was pretty too, in an odd sort of way.
He wanted to scream. This was all so terribly confusing! He sat down on the cold piano bench, letting his elbow rest on the keys. A loud 'clunk' resulted. The cold from the floor crept up into his feet as he sat there, just thinking.
He sat there for a long time. He was so lost in thought that he didn't realize the clock had long ago struck one and was now striking two. He glanced up at the chiming of the bells, then sighed and padded back upstairs to bed.
In another house, across town, another boy was also wrestling with his emotions. But while Naruto had been contemplating them consciously, Sasuke's turmoil was occurring subconsciously.
Had he been aware he was dreaming, it wouldn't have seemed quite so troubling, but as it were, the dream was terribly realistic and forced him to believe it was actually occurring.
It was a beautiful, summer's day, with a soft breeze and a vaulting blue sky overhead. The sun shone down, warming the creatures below it. He was standing outside, standing in front of a group of people. He recognized a few faces in the crowd. Iruka was sitting in the front row, wiping tears from his eyes with a handkerchief.
He glanced to his left. Someone was standing there, garbed in a puffy, lacy, massive white gown. He couldn't see the person's face, as it was hidden under layers upon layers of white mesh - a veil, he realized. He nearly choked as he realized what was going on. This was a wedding! Immediately, the first person he thought of to be standing beside him was Sakura. Vaguely, he pondered why that was.
Somebody said, in a voice that just oozed evil, "You may kiss the bride."
The priest, or priestess as he realized the voice belonged to Tsunade, then began cackling.
He felt nervousness creep into the pit of his stomach as the bride slowly began to unravel the veil. Who was it? He caught a flash of blonde hair; blue eyes. Was that Ino?
As it turned out, it was none other than Uzumaki Naruto. The short blond smiled up at him shyly, blushing a funny shade of red. So that's why Iruka had been crying.
Sasuke's eyes snapped open. He glanced about his room, his normal, bland, dark room.
It wasn't summer, it wasn't day and he wasn't marrying Naruto. He sighed in relief and sat up. He shook his head to clear the last cobwebbed remains of sleep. "What the hell?" he wondered out loud.
If dreams were honestly a projection of the subconscious, why was he subconsciously thinking about Naruto? And thinking about marrying Naruto nonetheless? He probably subconsciously knew the answer.
Sighing, he chalked it up to an anger-induced nightmare. He rolled over and went back to sleep.
Naruto trudged tiredly into the kitchen, then looked up in shock. Iruka was making breakfast, which was normal. What wasn't normal, however, was seeing Hatake Kakashi sitting at the kitchen table, reading the morning paper. Naruto rubbed his eyes to clear his vision and blinked. Still, the silver-haired teacher sat there.
"What are you doing here!" Naruto yelped, completely baffled.
Kakashi glanced up from the paper and smiled. "Good morning, Naruto," he said cheerfully, avoiding the question.
"What are you doing in my kitchen!" Naruto yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the teacher.
Kakashi looked amused. "Your kitchen? Oh, my mistake. I thought this kitchen belonged to Iruka."
Naruto glared and slumped into one of the chairs, eyeing Kakashi suspiciously. The other shrugged and went back to the newspaper. Things just kept getting weirder and weirder around here. . .
- - -
Naruto sat at the piano, eyeing the arriving band members. So far, Sakura and Ino, along with Hinata had been the only ones to turn up. It was only seven o'clock, though, so there was still plenty of time for the rest to arrive. He glanced at Hinata again. The girl kept looking at him, the turning away shyly. He wondered why.
Iruka was in his office, conversing with Kakashi. Naruto had yet to find out why the silver-haired teacher had been sitting at the table earlier. Naruto was beginning to suspect that Ino and Sakura's hypothesis of a Kakashi-Iruka relationship was all too right.
He glanced up as two more people entered the room. The violinists always arrived at the same time, five minutes after seven o'clock. Said two were conversing quietly as they set up. Naruto wondered briefly if Sasuke knew his brother was. . .err. . .queer. It was pretty obvious to Naruto, who had developed a sort of tact for picking up on these sorts of things. Thus, he concluded that Itachi liked Orochimaru and Orochimaru liked Itachi back. Naruto snickered at the thought of high and mighty Sasuke finding that out. It might have been fairly amusing.
The two were intensely focussed on each other, even as they started warming up. Itachi's eyes never left Orochimaru as he put his bow to the violin strings. It was kind of creepy.
Naruto turned his attention away from them to note Hyuuga Neji and Sasuke enter the room, glaring intensely at each other. It was well known that the two flute players disliked each other. Well, Neji disliked everybody. The only difference here was that Sasuke disliked him back.
They set-up and proceeded to warm up, each trying to best the other by being, faster, louder, more clear. The sad part was that they both messed up at the same time, their notes ending in a terrible, high-pitched squeal that made everyone in the room wince.
An instant later, Rock Lee entered the room, followed by Tenten.
Gradually, the band members trickled in and by seven-thirty, they were set-up and warming up. Iruka seemed to be positively glowing when he entered the room. Naruto wondered what had happened to brighten the teacher's mood. Ino and Sakura started whispering.
All in all, the practice was rather uneventful. Iruka stopped them once or twice to yell at the brass section for being out of sync. Naruto found he made fewer mistakes. Perhaps that was because he'd played the piece. Or it could have been the fact his hands weren't shaking from nervousness.
Practice officially ended at quarter to nine, but students began packing up their instruments and leaving around eighty-thirty. At eight-forty-five, there was nearly nobody left in the room. Iruka had retreated to his office again.
Naruto cracked his knuckles and took the music off the piano. He was kind of glad he didn't have to cart his instrument around with him. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw Sasuke looking at him. The dark-haired boy quickly glanced away, putting the pieces of his instrument back into its case.
Naruto shrugged it off, feeling the confused feelings surrounding the topic of Sasuke start rising up again. He stood up.
"Naruto, I ...uh, wanted to talk to you," Sasuke said quietly.
He sounded nervous. Naruto gritted his teeth. He didn't want to deal with this right now. "If it's about the stupid project, I don't want to hear it," he growled.
"It's not about the project." Sasuke sounded more confident now.
Naruto turned back to face the boy, finding that Sasuke had stood up now. "What is it then?" he said, feeling more agitated by the second.
"I...uh..." Sasuke fumbled for a moment, and then, in a completely unexpected move, grabbed Naruto's chin, pulled his face up and kissed him roughly.
And in a fraction of a second, it was all over again and Sasuke stood there, blushing and looking very embarrassed. He backed up, obviously shocked with what he'd done. "Oh...shit...I'm sorry!" he cried, then hastily gathered his stuff and fled the room.
Naruto stood in the middle of the room, blinking stupidly. Absently, he pressed his fingers to his lips. Sasuke had just -
And worst of all, he'd liked it. He felt sick. He was shaking badly and he was cold. All the colour must have drained out of his face. He sat down in one of the vacant chairs, trying to calm himself. His mind was racing, and his heartbeat was too. He thought for a minute that he was going to faint.
"Oh gods," he choked out.
Then he did the only sensible thing he could do. He ran. He ran out of the room, out of the school. He had to get away from there. He knew he wouldn't be able to stand being in the same room as Sasuke, not now, not probably forever. He couldn't face the idea that he, who was already an outcast, was now different from everyone else.
His feet pounded on the pavement, churning up pebbles and dust. 'Why me, why me, why me! Why not someone else!'
He ran all the way home. He ran straight into the backyard, where he collapsed under the ancient oak tree, crying and pounding the ground with his fists. He felt like he was two, having a temper tantrum over something he couldn't have.
"It's not fair, it's not fair!"
Slowly, the initial rage began to fade and he curled up, wiping tears away to make room for fresh ones. With the anger gone, he was left with nothing but cold, quiet longing - for something he couldn't have. Acceptance. Wasn't that what every teenager wanted? To be accepted, to fit in, to have some sort of social standing -
He had none. He was the total outcast, the loner, the loser, the freak that nobody wanted to be caught talking to. Even some of the teachers avoided him.
The wind shifted the leaves of the tree and he was filled with a sudden want to be the wind. The wind went everywhere, heard everything, but was nothing, really and when it wanted, it could just drift away, leaving the air stagnant and still.
The sun rose into the sky and the day grew warmer, but he had no intention to move, no desire to move. He just wanted to stay where he was, always and never have to face the world.
The day was bright and warm and happy. Naruto's day was bright and cold and miserable.
- - - - - -