(Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! If you're reading, please remember to review. Warnings and disclaimers apply to all chapters.)
And the Beat Goes On
Chapter 21: Exams!
While Naruto was glad that the warm days of September had faded away into the icy days of December, his happiness was apparently not meant to last.
Now that the holiday was over, everyone had returned to school, and Naruto's situation had seen little improvement. He was still hated, everyone still whispered about his and Sasuke's relationship, Gaara was still stalking him, and he was still failing all his classes.
Now, to make things that much worse, the teachers were piling on the end of term assignments, and the all–dreaded exams were approaching.
The blond wanted to schedule some cram sessions with Sasuke, for the boy was, after all, a genius of the highest calibre, and if all else failed, Itachi might be able to explain something to him, but it was more likely that he would end up being distracted, either by Orochimaru and Itachi going at it, or themselves become distracted by. . .er, themselves.
Naruto tapped his pencil boredly on his desk, earning himself a glare from Tsunade. He smirked and tapped the pencil more rapidly and grinned even wider when the teacher turned back to the chalk board, doing some sort of review.
He glanced across the room, hoping to make eye contact with Sasuke, and mentally communicate that he wanted to talk to him after class, but the only set of eyes he found were Hinata's.
He dropped his gaze back to his blank sheet, unnerved by her gaze. She too looked away.
At last, the bell sounded, echoing in his ears, and he darted forward, catching Sasuke before he had time to dart off like he usually did. He grabbed the dark-haired boy by the arm and literally dragged him out of the classroom, into the crowded halls. Sasuke was staring at him, looking half confused and half angry.
"What's wrong with you?" he hissed, barely audible above the noise.
Naruto drew both of Sasuke's hands together in his own and looked pleadingly at the other boy. "Can I study with you sometime? Please?"
The older boy rolled his eyes. "No. We've already discussed this."
Okay, it was time to get out the heavy artillery. Naruto was an expert at getting what he wanted, so he had perfected the art of puppy dog eyes, and making his bottom lip tremble, as if he might cry.
"Please?" he asked in the tiniest, most I'm-on-the-edge-of-crying voice he could muster.
Sasuke swore, looked away, then relented, muttering, "Fine. But we're studying. And nothing else."
"Yay!" Naruto shouted loudly, and hopped up and down, completely forgetting that he still had a hold of Sasuke and said boy was being forced to semi-hop with him.
A few passing by stopped and stared, bewildered. One of them whispered to another, "Must've agreed to lay him," before they walked on, and put the entire incident behind them.
- - - - - - - - - -
Uchiha Itachi had not had a good day. Not in the slightest. First off, it was his first day back to school. Secondly, he was going to have to write exams in a couple of weeks, plus finish off all the extra projects he should have finished off months ago, but hadn't, because he'd been too busy fucking around with his boyfriend.
And third, and foremost, said fucking boyfriend was being a fucking dick, and they'd been fighting ever since he'd gotten high, and met Kabuto. Apparently, some other shit had happened while he'd been out of it.
And to top it all, his relatives were still in his house, bugging the living daylights out of him, and some fishy fellow was now apparently stalking him, and that had made Orochimaru very possessive and on edge. Currently, the scenario often occurred where Itachi was being held closer than humanly possible to his boyfriend, who'd slung an arm about his waist for "protection purposes" and said boyfriend would be looking over his shoulder, with shifty eyes, whilst Itachi choked to death.
No, life was not good right now.
He sighed and sat down on the sofa, throwing down his binder and spreading out all the assignment sheets, reading them over as quickly as he could. He'd no sooner picked up a pencil than something - or someone, rather - bolted in the door, threw off their shoes and lunged at him, effectively tackling, and pinning him to the sofa.
"Orochimaru!" he screeched. "Get the hell off me!"
The older boy was currently licking his cheek, for some unknown reason. The golden-eyed boy blinked lazily, and drawled, "No."
Itachi gritted his teeth and pointed at his now scattered papers. "Lookit here. I've got lots of projects and stuff to do, so I'm not going to be doing you for a while."
The elder boy retained his perch. Itachi slapped him. "Get off, or I won't ever do you again!"
Orochimaru latched onto the younger boy's neck, rather suddenly, and Itachi cried out in pain, then proceeded in trying to kick his boyfriend in the balls. "Get off me!" he screamed.
The elder finally relented and Itachi slapped a hand to his abused neck, feeling the blood sticking to his fingers. "What the hell was that for?" he hissed, his eyes narrowing in annoyance.
Orochimaru pressed his nose to his boyfriend's, locking their eyes. "Just a reminder," he said simply, earning himself a confused stare from his younger half. "You're mine."
Itachi muttered something and returned to his papers, only to pause and glare at the other boy, who was now absently playing with his ponytail. "Do you mind?" he growled.
"No," was the arrogant reply, accompanied by a smirk.
Itachi turned his attention back to starting his first assignment, which happened to be a writing assignment, and a fairly short one.
Over the course of twenty minutes, he'd found that he'd only gotten about two sentences written, because he'd had to keep stopping and glaring at Orochimaru, who kept touching him in various ways. "I am trying to work," he ground out in pure annoyance.
"Are we going to have sex yet?"
Itachi just stared blankly at Orochimaru for a moment or two, before turning back to his assignments, figuring that they were more likely to preserve his sanity than trying to converse with his boyfriend.
Only about ten minutes passed, before Itachi was interrupted yet again, but this time not by Orochimaru, but by Sasuke and Naruto, who were just arriving to begin their "study" session. Itachi sighed and gave up, throwing his pencil to the floor, and letting himself slump back into Orochimaru's waiting arms.
"Why do I even bother?" he asked, drawing a hand down his face in pure exasperation.
- - - - - - - - - - -
While Itachi was trying to deal with his homework downstairs, so were Sasuke and Naruto having an equal amount of trouble trying to study.
About five minutes into the cram session, Sasuke gave up, throwing his hands into the air, crying, "You're a hopeless case, Naruto!"
The blond boy merely stared at him and blinked stupidly. Sasuke sighed and pointed at the paper Naruto was holding. "We're not studying math," he growled. "We were studying science."
Naruto glanced down at the sheet and noted that he had pulled out something completely unrelated to biology, or chemistry, which were the two units he was most concerned with. He'd been getting extra math help from Iruka, who happened to be a financial wizard, for months now.
Sasuke sighed and opened his boyfriend's binder, staring at the unorderly mess that resided there. He glared. "How do you expect to study this?" he asked skeptically.
"Um," Naruto said, biting his lip.
Sasuke sighed and got up, clambering up onto his bed and sprawling out. "You sort that out. Wake me up when you're finished."
Naruto glowered and started to organize his notes. Sasuke watched the blond, half-asleep, half not, his eyes only half closed. He mused on several things, ranging from how cute Naruto was when he pouted like that, to pretty much everything else Naruto-related.
Somewhere between the hot, wild sex, and how he'd like to kick Naruto into oblivion sometimes, Sasuke managed to fall asleep.
Naruto, by this point, had papers scattered all about Sasuke's room. He was still sulking, because if there was one thing he hated, it was organization. He didn't understand how Sasuke could keep his room so clean and neat, with not a paperclip out of place. It bothered him.
So, finally noting that his boyfriend was completely conked out, Naruto thought of a deviously devious idea. Of course, it took him a couple minutes, because nobody ever said that Naruto possessed any genius, but when he got an idea, did he ever get an idea.
Grinning evilly, Naruto got up. He crawled over the bed, waved his hand in Sasuke's face, and when he was satisfied that the boy was practically dead to the world, he got to work.
He started with the bookshelf. He removed the contents, turning the books on their sides, then placing them back on the shelves in messy, falling down piles, and when he ran out of room on the shelves, he started strewing them across the room.
Next, he took the pile of Sasuke's dirty clothes and literally threw them all across the room. Then, the papers to Sasuke's binders were turned loose, and objects were taken out of the drawers of his desk, his dresser and placed here and there, and everywhere.
Naruto paused, pulling a little black book out from under a pair of Sasuke's underwear. The book was unmarked, and that made the little blond curious. He cracked open the book, and found that it was full of blank pages. He turned through them, utterly bored by them, until he stumbled across a page that was not blank.
In fact, marring the perfect white of the page, was Sasuke's utterly perfect, terribly legible handwriting. Naruto snickered and stumbled backwards, landing on the bed. His boyfriend had a diary!
The bed rocked when he landed on it, and he glanced over to see if he'd woken the ebony-haired beauty sleeping there. Sasuke muttered and rolled over, but remained prone otherwise. Naruto sighed and peered at the book again.
He read a couple pages, the dissolved into laughter again. Just like any teenage male, it appeared that Sasuke had some rather odd sexual fantasies, but unlike most of the male populous, he'd written them down. Another odd fact was that most of them seemed to feature Naruto, as the dominant partner, rather than the submissive one.
"Well, if that isn't fucking odd," he muttered and prodded Sasuke, who waved his hand around and buried his face in the pillow.
Naruto snickered evilly and the wheels in his head began to turn, as he formulated an evil plan. Unfortunately, he happened to glance at the clock and noticed that it was well past dinner-time. Frowning, he wandered downstairs, to see if maybe he could scrounge something.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, as he would later come to refer to the incident, the Uchihas apparently ate later than his 'family'.
Itachi and Orochimaru were having a staring contest across the table, apparently still fighting with each other, though Naruto wasn't quite sure why. The Uchihas' aunt, Kurenai, Naruto thought Sasuke had called her, was sitting at the table as well, glancing between the two boys nervously.
The brothers' great-grandmother was stirring something in the stove, and prattling on to Kurenai about something or other.
All in all, the entire atmosphere was fairly hostile. Though Gran had known about Orochimaru actually being a guy for about a week, she had yet to say anything about it to either her great-grandson or the other.
Kurenai was nervous, and Itachi and Orochimaru had been fighting since before the holiday ended, or Sasuke had told Naruto.
They all glanced up at him when he entered the room, and he watched their faces drop, as if they had been expecting someone else. Oh, that was right. He didn't live here, but Sasuke did. They must have been expecting him.
"Oh, it's you," Gran huffed and went back to her soup. . .or whatever it was.
Naruto gritted his teeth in annoyance. "What do you mean by that!" he yelled, taking up a fighting stance.
He wasn't taking any shit from this bitch.
"What do you think I meant?" the old woman said, narrowing her eyes into the patented Uchiha glare.
Kurenai rapped her knuckles on the table nervously. "Now, please don't fight. . ," she started, but never finished, because Naruto and Gran had met half-way across the kitchen and were now glaring each other in the eye.
"Stupid brat," the old woman hissed.
"Dumb old bitch," Naruto spat.
Itachi rolled his eyes. "Oh, shut the fuck up," he growled, getting up from the table.
Orochimaru kicked him. "Mind you manners," he growled, glaring.
"Make me," Itachi retorted, sticking out his tongue.
Naruto and Gran started at the fighting teenagers for a moment, then returned to their own bickering. They lunged at each other, and started trying to kill each other with every means possible. Gran grabbed her cane; Naruto found a butcher's knife and brandished it dangerously.
Kurenai looked nervously from one fight to the next.
Orochimaru and Itachi were wrestling on the floor, and Gran and Naruto had actually picked up weapons. Kurenai chewed on her lip.
It was that exact moment that Sasuke decided to meander into the kitchen. He stared blankly for a moment or two, then closed his eyes and screamed, "What the fuck is going on in here!"
Everyone stopped and stared at the youngest Uchiha, who glared back at them.
Naruto's last cohesive thought was the Sasuke was very scary when he was mad, but he didn't quite remember that, because Gran managed to knock him out with a frying pan.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
In the home of Umino Iruka, the frying pan was being used for other things, such as cooking, rather than knocking people out.
The snow was falling gently outside and though the house was warm, Konohamaru, who was sitting at the kitchen table, was feeling a little icy. It wasn't as though he felt cold and cut-off, or that Iruka was being mean. It was that icy grip, the vice-like fingers of fear.
He had a question to ask his uncle, though he was almost sure he didn't want to.
He stared at the cup of milk he had between his hands, and cleared his throat. He wanted his voice to be loud and clear, so that Iruka would hear him the first time and he wouldn't have to ask him more than once. If he had to repeat himself, he might have backed out and tried to forget about asking.
"Uncle Iruka," he started, and his voice was almost as quiet as the snow falling outside.
Iruka half-turned, having heard him despite the smallness of his voice, and 'hmm'ed, indicating that he should continue.
The eight-year-old swallowed and his eyes darted about the room nervously. He drew a deep breath and said softly, "What's sex?"
Iruka choked, then turned about fully, eyes wide. "What?" he asked, his voice choked and incredulous.
Konohamaru looked at his feet and twiddled his thumbs.
Iruka was at a complete loss for words. His eight-year-old nephew had just asked him that question, the question that all parents dreaded.
Iruka had actually never put himself through the embarrassment, or the strain of having "the talk" with Naruto, partially because the blond never asked, and partially because Iruka probably would have had a heart attack trying to broach the subject.
So, how did he explain this now?
"Why?" he asked stupidly, unable to come up with a brilliant plan of action to weasel his way out of this impending conversation.
Konohamaru went very red in the face, and looked down some more, mumbling. Iruka strained to hear him, but failed miserable. "Pardon?" he asked, and the eight-year-old's head shot up.
He nearly screamed, "I saw Naruto and Sasuke doing stuff!"
Iruka froze. All his limbs went limp, dropping like dead weights; his blood froze in his veins. His brain stopped working. Heck, his heart probably stopped for a second or two. "You what!"
"They were doing stuff," the little boy mumbled, looking away again.
"What. . .kind of stuff?" Iruka ventured after a moment or two of awkward silence.
Konohamaru huffed and crossed his arms. He knew this was a bad idea. He'd have been better to talk to Naruto, or that Kakashi guy who hung around with Iruka. Kakashi seemed like a bit of a pervert.
"Like. . .kissing, and stuff," he said, looking steadfastly at the wall.
Iruka sighed. Kissing, oh gods, he only saw them kissing. He was just about to send a mental thank you note to whatever great spirit had prevented his innocent little nephew from seeing more, when said nephew ploughed on.
". . .and. . .Naruto. . .had. . .that. . .up Sasuke's butt."
Iruka coughed loudly, for several minutes, then cried, "What!" and stared at his nephew like a deer in headlights.
Konohamaru glared. "You heard me!"
Iruka sighed. There was no way to get out of this conversation, no way at all. He chuckled dryly a little bit. "Naruto," he laughed. "Is so dead."
Konohamaru looked warily at his uncle, then decided it might be a wise idea to bolt.
Unfortunately, before he could, Iruka had sat down, ready to teach his nephew the basics of life.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Sasuke hadn't spoken to Naruto in a week. It was disturbingly frustrating. Whenever the blond tried to approach the other boy, Sasuke distracted himself, talking to whoever was closest to him, or walking smartly away.
Oh, he'd been mad. It was true that Sasuke didn't like his grandmother, but Naruto supposed that didn't mean Sasuke would stand back while they beat the living snot out of each other. Ah, the old saying, 'blood's thicker than water' came to mind.
It was a bit of a surprise to Naruto that Sasuke was the one to bridge the gap, because normally, if he knew how Sasuke's mind worked, it would have taken month's for him to get on the boy's good side again.
It was the day of the big English exam, and about half an hour before the exam actually started, Sasuke found his blond boyfriend sitting in front of his locker, studying as hard as he could.
The elder boy sat down, and waited a bit for Naruto to acknowledge him. When the blond did no such thing, Sasuke scooted a bit closer and pointed to something on the page Naruto was reading, saying, "That's not the right definition for alliteration, dunce."
Naruto glared daggers and sniffed. "It's none of your business, asshole."
Within the next twenty-five minutes, all bad feelings that had been lingering in their relationship, and any uncertainties they held had been completely dispelled and comforted. They'd touched, nothing too serious, but gentle touches, signs of affection - hands brushing against hands, Sasuke laying his head on Naruto's shoulder, an arm about the shoulder - and they did not care what anybody said.
The clock read five to nine when Naruto packed away his notes and headed to the exam with Sasuke. The blond was still trying to remember all the important topics they'd covered, in his knowledge-crammed head, when the ebony-haired boy turned to him and said, "Naruto, I was wondering. . ."
"Wondering what?" Naruto asked, looking up, and seeming almost absent. He was still mentally cramming for the exam.
"I was wondering if I was to have. . .oh, let's say a party of some sort. . ."
"A party, right. Go on."
"Would you be able to get Iruka out of the house for the night, so we could have the party there?"
"Sure, whatever," Naruto muttered, not really paying attention now, because the classroom was in sight and that made Naruto nervous, which in turn, made him try harder to remember everything he might need to know.
"Great," Sasuke said.
The bell rang, and the teacher presiding over the examination opened the door. Slowly, the unwilling students started to flow into the classroom. Naruto sat as near to Sasuke as possible, which wasn't really possible, because everyone else was trying to sit beside the genius too.
He ended up sitting beside Sakura, who was sitting behind Ino, who had managed to sit beside Sasuke. Two rows ahead of him was Hinata, and two seats away from him, on his left, was Kiba.
The teacher was explaining the exam, telling them what they already knew: the time limit, to read the instructions carefully.
He glanced over at Sakura as the teacher started handing out the papers. "Good luck," he whispered.
She smiled and nodded. "You too," she replied, as quietly as she could.
The teacher rapped her knuckles on the pink-haired girl's desk as she walked by. "No talking during the exam," she barked, then continued on.
An hour and a half later, one very frustrated, very upset Uzumaki Naruto was sure that he had just failed his English exam. He was no good at writing essays, and that was exactly what they'd been asked to do, write a damn essay.
He stood, tearing at his hair near his locker, trying not to scream, but to vent at the same time.
"How do you think you did?"
He stopped pulling at his hair long enough to see Hinata, who was standing in front of him, tapping her index fingers together. Naruto shook his head, indicating he didn't want to talk about it.
The white-eyed girl looked vaguely disappointed. "Oh. Well, I'm sure you'll do okay," she said, trying to be encouraging, and gave him a shy small.
He sighed. "Thanks," he murmured and turned back to his locker.
He opened the locker up, and he was just about to ask her how she thought she did, when he noticed she had gone.
He turned back around and found Sasuke standing in front of him. "Jeez," he muttered, glaring darkly. "Why must you people be so goddamn quiet?"
The taller boy quirked an eyebrow in inquisition, but said nothing. Without another word, Naruto gathered up his stuff, and shut his locker. He started off down the hall, Sasuke tagging along like his shadow.
They walked into the outdoors, feeling the winter wind's bitter bite, as it slapped them in the face and forced their exam-numbed minds to wake up.
Sasuke turned to face him, and his pale cheeks were already tinged pink from the cold. "So, is Saturday okay?"
Naruto looked at him, stupefied. "What?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The party."
"Oh," Naruto muttered, trying to remember why and when Sasuke had mentioned a party. "Sure. That's great."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"Are you sure about this?"
"As sure as I'll ever be."
Itachi watched impassively as the other speaker fitted a key into a lock, and opened the door up. He was led into the dingy apartment, which was still filled with dirt and grime and remnants from the old occupants, lending to the feeling that this was something new. This person was new, he was new to this place.
Something or other was shoved into his hands, and he looked down, realizing it was a small paper bag, full of that powder Kabuto had given him the other day.
He glanced at the other boy in the room, who shrugged and said, rather gruffly, "That damned snake was right about something. You are uptight."
Itachi frowned, but said nothing else, helping himself to the powder.
Truth be told, he'd liked being high, and he'd liked feeling like he'd had nothing to do, nothing to worry about, because it was such a change from reality.
There were hands on his shoulders, gently working out the knots in him. "You're very stressed out."
"Hn," was all he said and closed his eyes.
"You're also very pretty."
He opened his eyes and looked into blank, fish-like eyes. They were worse than Orochimaru's eyes, and he almost shuddered in fear. Instead he closed his eyes, blocking out the image of this new person.
Gentle, tender, that was how the touches were, almost hesitant and shy. It had never been that way with the other one - no, it had been bold and blunt, and rough right from the start. Maybe that was what was missing - some tenderness, some understanding.
They were both too tough, too callous for that.
There were hands in his hair now, and the touch was different, it was so different that it almost made him want to cry. It was so gentle and compassionate, he felt he could break down; he was doing something wrong now, but he'd been driven to it by the burning anger and he wanted to backlash the other so hard.
This one tasted different too, of something a little more disgusting than the last. The last tasted of something a little bittersweet, like baker's chocolate, while this one tasted more like raw meat.
If he kept this up, he'd ruin it. He couldn't keep comparing them, it was wrong. That was then, this was now. That was him, this was he, and the only thing they really had in common was that they thought Itachi made a good piece of ass.
Kisses, sweet and gentle, nothing like they had been with his last lover. The drug was starting to take effect now, starting to take hold and everything around him was surreal, no longer held by the bounds of gravity, no longer held by the bounds of reality.
And in that hazy mist, there was one other thing, the only thing that could keep him anchored.
Why? Why was he doing this? He was doing it for revenge, to get back at the last one. He was no one's property and Orochimaru had made the mistake of thinking he was, and he was over-bearing and over-protective and it had insulted him and pissed him off.
So, he'd done the only logical thing he could and he'd run straight into the arms of the enemy, and he was going to be the ornament in that one's bed, and he would just let said enemy rub it in Orochimaru's face that he had lost this time.
In his drug-induced stupor, there was only Kisame.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It was all the buzz during the exams the next day. The students were chattering excitedly about it in the halls, and as they wandered into their classrooms, even as the teacher was trying to hush them and pass out the test papers.
"Did you hear? Have you heard?"
"Sasuke's having a party Saturday night."
"Really!"
"The Uchihas always have the best parties."
"There's gonna be alcohol right?"
"Do you know anyone who's going? I don't want to go alone. . ."
"Everybody's going! Who wouldn't?"
"I heard it's at Naruto's house. Is it true?"
"Ew. Who'd want to have a party at his house?"
And so on and so forth. Word of the party raced up and down the student food chain like a wild fire, and soon, even the most unpopular nerd had heard about the party Saturday night, and was trying to decide whether or not to go.
Naruto, of course, had known that there was a party. However, he was shocked to find out that the party was being held at his house, by Sasuke.
Gaara had absorbed the news silently from several nearby students, leeching it from them, and then told Temari, who was hell-bent to drag them to that party, for the sole sake of their 'mission'.
Sakura and Ino had been gushing over it, all day, because a party was an excuse to get out of the house, and mingle with their friends, and drink and possibly do some other stuff.
Lee was plotting to use the party to put his plan to capture Sakura's heart into action. Shikamaru was planning on not going. Hinata thought she might go, because Kiba wanted her to, and she might see Naruto. Kiba was going because of the free alcohol.
Orochimaru and Itachi had thankfully not heard about the party yet, and Sasuke was going to try and keep it that way, even though they could legally buy alcohol. Itachi and Orochimaru generally scared people, and they were scary sober, and even scarier drunk. Plus, they were in sort of a war, so he didn't think getting them drunk would help. And besides that, they each knew some very weird people, who they would no doubt invite.
The exams dragged by, and Saturday grew closer and closer, and finally, on Friday after two hours of the dreaded science exam, everyone was free from school for a week or so, and it was off to the party with them all.
- - - - - - - - - -
TenTen stood in front of the looming building, feeling the nervousness twist in the pit of her stomach.
The skies were grey, dark, with the clouds threatening snow. The wind was picking up, and howling wildly through the evening streets. A few cars drove by, splashing up the slush from the road.
She wished Neji was with her right then, and there, though she doubted he'd be much support, because he really never was. He was also dead-set against this, which was why she was there without him.
She drew a shaky breath and took a step toward the building, then another, and another, until she was walking into the tiny building that had seemed so foreboding a few seconds ago, despite it's small stature. She ventured into the doctor's office, to right her wrong.
- - - - - - - - - - - -