Disclaimer: As you all know, I do not own Naruto and Romeo and Juliet.
Author's Note: I'm just on a roll! I'm here with chapter six! Most of this chapter takes place at school during Naruto's drama class, because that's where most of the other characters can come into play. I've finally got Gaara in here! And there will be some hints of Gaara+Naruto. But, this is most definitely SASUKE-NARUTO in the end! And, as usual, we've got more of Sasuke in complete denial. So much fun! Well, talk to you later, and thanks for all of your reviews! SilverRose88.
Chapter Six
"Thank you, Sasuke, you may sit down now," Iruka said. "Class, that's all for today. Since you were all wonderful with your performing, the last ten minutes are yours,"
"Ahh! Sasuke-kun!" came sudden high pitched calls from around the classroom.
"Oh, no," Sasuke groaned, sinking down in his seat.
"Hey, Sasuke-kun, your fan club is here," Naruto said from the seat beside him.
"Shut up," Sasuke said, and just then about ten or more girls were surrounding Sasuke's desk. The loudest were Sakura and Ino, who were leading the group.
"Sasuke-kun, you are such a wonderful actor!" Sakura said.
"Where did you learn to act like that?" Ino asked.
"I didn't learn. I just sort of taught myself," Sasuke replied absently.
"Ooh! That's so cool!" Sakura shrieked. "You should switch roles with Naruto and be Romeo. You would be such a dashing perfect Romeo!"
"Sakura-chan, did you call my name?" Naruto asked.
"No, I did not, Naruto! Go away!" Sakura said angrily and pushed him out of the way and Naruto fell to the floor. "Sorry about that, Sasuke-kun," she said sweetly, turning back to him.
But Sasuke wasn't listening to her. He'd turned in his seat with an odd urge to see if Naruto was okay. However, before he could say a word, Neji had walked over and was holding his hand out for Naruto to take.
"You okay?" Neji asked.
"I'm fine, thanks Neji," Naruto grasped his hand and got to his feet. Naruto grinned. "Hey, you did really good today! The role of Paris fits you completely!"
"And you're not too bad of a Romeo," Neji asid.
"Heheh, that's right! I am the best!" Naruto said.
"Want to run lines before the bell rings?"
"Sure!"
Sasuke snarled under his breath as he watched Naruto walk off with Neji. That bastard. Sasuke thought. Right at the moment, he had to come over. Right away. Before I could say anything. Damn him…
"S-Sasuke-kun, are you okay?" Ino asked.
"You look angry. Is something wrong?" Sakura said.
Sasuke stood up abruptly and stormed over to the other side of the room where Naruto was--with Neji. That one thought made hot anger boil throughout Sasuke's body. "Oi, Naruto!" Sasuke called, approaching them.
"Hey, Sasuke-teme! Escaped from your fan girls?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah, it was simple," Sasuke said with a smirk.
"You're so full of it," Naruto said.
"Are we rehearsing tonight?" Sasuke asked.
"Oh, I can't. I've got work tonight. But tomorrow we can I guess--no, wait, Neji and I are getting together tomorrow," Naruto said.
"That's right. We're going to practice that fighting scene," Neji said, smirking triumphantly.
He might as well have said, 'You're too later, Uchiha.' It's written all over his goddamn face. …Wait, the fighting scene? Again? They don't need to practice that! "I see," Sasuke said, glaring at Neji. "But don't forget, we've still got out project to work on as well," he said to Naruto.
"God, Sasuke, did my defrosting attempts do nothing on you yesterday?" Naruto asked. "You're still a tight-ass. I've got to double my efforts now!"
"Ah--Naruto?" Neji asked, looking confused and somewhat angry. "What are you talking about?"
"That's none of your business, Hyuuga," Sasuke said with a smirk.
Neji's face contorted with anger.
"Well, dobe, I'll talk to you later," Sasuke said, turning to leave.
"Yep, Sasuke-bastard! Make sure you're free this weekend, I'm coming to melt you!"
Sasuke shook his head, smirking still as he returned to his desk. He was exceptionally satisfied for pissing Neji off, it had also made him less angry, though he wasn't sure why he'd been so made in the first place. And he felt something else knowing the fact that he would be spending time with Naruto in a few days. He wasn't sure what the emotion was, but it kept nagging at him like an annoying bug. He glanced back over at Naruto and suppressed a light smile. It wasn't until after the bell rang and he was heading towards his locker with the hyperactive dobe mouthing off about random stuff beside him did Sasuke finally realize what it was he was feeling.
It was happiness.
"Hold Tybalt! Good Mercutio!" Naruto said.
"Now, Tybalt run around Romeo and stab Mercutio under Romeo's arm," Kakashi said.
Gaara nodded in assent and did as he was told. He pretended to stab Shino and then moved out of the way.
Shino fell to the ground and said, "I am hurt. A plague o' both your houses! I am sped. Is he gone and hath nothing?"
Naruto and Kiba crouched down beside him and Kiba, as Benvolio said, "What, art thou hurt?"
Shino nodded and replied, "Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; many tis enough. Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon,"
"Okay, good, now let's skip a little. Kiba will take Shino away and comes back to tell Romeo that Mercutio has dies. The two talk and then the vicious Tybalt returns. Pick off from there, Kiba,"
"Here comes the furious Tybalt back again,"
"He live in triumph, and Mercutio slain?" Naruto said. "Away to heaven, respective lenity, and fire-eyed fury be my conduct now! …Either thou or I, or both, must go with him,"
"Thou wretched boy, that didst consort him here, shalt with him hence," Gaara said, stepping closer and took out a ruler as his makeshift sword.
"This shall determine that," Naruto said, taking out his own 'sword' and then he and Gaara pretended to fight. "Aha! Take that you villain! I shall kill you and avenge Mercutio!"
"Hn. I do not die that easily. You'll be joining your friend soon enough, dear Romeo!" Gaara said.
Soon, the entire class began chanting, "Fight! Fight!" A few people chose a side and began calling out their ally's name.
"See? Even the audience wants me to win! Romeo will prevail!" Naruto said, stepping closer and slashing at Gaara's ruler with his own.
"Do you not hear my name amongst the crowd? I shall win and Romeo will cease to be any more," Gaara said.
They continued to fight until Iruka yelled, "Stop! Get on with it!"
The class whined loudly.
"Okay then! Die, dear Tybalt!" Naruto said and pretended to stab Gaara in the chest. Gaara dramatically fell over and 'died.'
"Romeo! Away, be gone! The citizens are up and Tybalt's slain. …Hence, be gone, away!" Kiba said.
"Oh, I am Fortunes' fool," Naruto read.
"Why dost thou stay?" Kiba said.
"All right everyone, wonderful job! You four can go back to your seats. We'll take a break for awhile and then have a scene with Juliet and Paris," Jiraiya said.
Naruto sighed heavily then turned to Gaara and held his hand out to help him up. "Great fight, Gaara," Naruto said with a grin.
Gaara got to his feet. "Yes it was a good fight,"
"And, it was fun! We should get together and practice more," Naruto said, walking down the aisle to his desk.
"That would be nice," Gaara said with a slight smile.
"Yahoo! Fun, fun, fun!" Naruto chanted. "You should come over sometime soon. It'll be awesome!"
"What are you yakking about?" Sasuke asked.
"Hm? Oh, Gaara and I are planning on getting together and practice our fight scene," Naruto said happily.
"Oh, that's nice," Sasuke said.
"So, Sasuke-bastard, your scene is up next. You and Neji, won't that be interesting? Don't you two hate each other?" Naruto asked.
You have no idea, Sasuke thought. "You don't have work tonight do you? Then come over so we can research more,"
"Okey dokey," Naruto said. "What time?"
"I'll come get you at five," Sasuke replied.
"Come get you for what?" Neji asked, walking over.
"Oh, nothing of your concern, Hyuuga," Sasuke said before Naruto could reply. He glared at Neji evenly, black eyes sparring with pale ones.
"Iruka-sensei wants us down," Neji said. "Come on, Uchiha,"
Sasuke groaned, but followed Neji down to the front of the classroom. He suppressed a smile when Naruto yelled after him, "Break a leg--Juliet!"
At the sound of Naruto's voice, Neji turned halfway around and saw a smug look on Sasuke's face. He scowled, now in an even more foul mood.
"All right, class. Neji and Sasuke will rehearse a scene between Juliet and her fiancée, Paris!" Iruka said. "Okay then. Act four, scene one. The friar's cell, let's start with Paris's line when Juliet walks inside,"
Neji nodded and read without a trace of emotion, "Happily met, my lady, and my wife,"
"That may be, sir, when I may be a wife," Sasuke said, his usual grace and elegance gone.
"That 'may be' must be, love, on Thursday next," Neji said, glaring at Sasuke.
Sasuke returned his glare. "What must be shall be,"
"Come you to make confession to his father?" Neji said, voice rising.
"To answer to that, I should confess to you," Sasuke said, his voice also rising with annoyance and anger towards the other boy.
"Do no deny to him that you love me,"
"I will confess to you that I love him,"
Pale eyes met with dark ones and the owners glared at one another with complete electric hatred. The room was fill with an absolute tense vibration.
"So, will ye, I am sure, that you love me," Neji said through clenched teeth.
"If I do so, it will be of more pr--"
"CUT!" Iruka yelled.
Sasuke and Neji both turned to him slowly, looking annoyed.
"Both of you, I don't know what's going on, but you have to get your act together!" Iruka said. "You shouldn't be spitting fire at one another. The two of you are the best in the class and you are both doing terrible! What's going on?"
Sasuke and Neji glared at one another from the corner of their eyes. They both knew what was going on, but obviously would not admit it.
"If you won't tell us that, then is there something that will make the two of you act better?" Iruka asked.
Maybe if Naruto was playing the bastard…
"No? Then, I suggest you two take some time out of your schedules after school and practice more. If this happens during the play, there will be a big problem," Iruka said. "I know you two are better than that. I expect to see improvement,"
"Yes, sensei," Sasuke and Neji agreed, but knew that there was no way in hell the two of them would be spending time perfecting their scene. There was no way in hell.
"Go sit down, the bell will be ringing anyway," Iruka said with a sigh.
They didn't need telling twice. Sasuke walked briskly back to his seat beside Naruto and put his head into his arms on the desk. A moment later however, he felt an odd poking in his arm and looked up sharply, yelling, "What?"
Naruto looked surprised. "Nothing, teme! I was just checking to see if you were still alive or not!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm alive, dobe," Sasuke said with a wave of his hand. "Now leave me alone,"
"Geez, Sasuke-teme, attitude problems," Naruto said with a shake of his head. But, he respected the wish of the dark-haired boy and turned away to converse with Shikamaru who was sitting beside him.
Sasuke sighed, resting his head back onto his arms. Something was bugging him. It was because of what he'd thought of when Iruka had asked. Was there something that would make him act better? Why had Sasuke thought of Naruto? The first thought, the first person, the first image, the first everything that had come up in his mind when he'd heard that question had somehow referred to Naruto. But why? Why had he thought of Naruto of all people? Why had he pictured the blonde's face with his sapphire eyes and happy grin? Why hadn't he thought of something stupid like…ramen? No, wait, that reminded him of Naruto too!
Damn it, Sasuke thought with growing frustration. Why did Naruto affect him so? What was it about the stupid loud-mouthed dobe that got to him? Why did Sasuke always think of him; always liked being with him; always fumed with anger whenever he was with someone else? Was there a reason to the stupid feelings he was experiencing? Was there an explanation, an answer of some kind that would tell him if he was going insane or not?
Sasuke sighed again. So far nothing had even come close to being the answer he was looking for. So far, he had been on his own, trying to handle the downpour of feelings and thoughts that all seemed to heat up when he was around Naruto. So far, Sasuke was nothing more than just utterly confused.
Sasuke knocked on the door and waited for Naruto to answer.
"Coming!" came the loud voice that could only belong to the blonde boy.
A moment later, the door opened and Naruto was sitting his head out to see who it was. "Oh, Sasuke-bastard, you're here already!"
"I told you I was coming around five," Sasuke said.
"But it's only four-thirty," Naruto said.
So I wanted to come get you earlier. What of it? Sasuke thought. "Are you letting me in, or what?"
"Oh, sorry!" Naruto said, grinning sheepishly.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and walked inside, Naruto shutting the door behind him.
"What happened in here?" Sasuke asked, looking around the apartment which seemed to have been targeted as a war zone. "Tornado?"
"Heh, heh," Naruto laughed. "Nah. Neji and I got into a big blow out on our fight scene and well, this is the result," Naruto waved a hand around the room. There were books, notebooks, folders, and pens all over the floor. Some of Naruto's clothing--shirts and sweatshirts--were tossed around too. Pieces of paper were crumpled into balls and littered the floor and table. The bed was a mess of sheets and even the kitchen was somewhat trashed.
"…Hyuuga was here?" Sasuke asked, keeping his voice in check. It was hard to do, however, seeing as how the only place his eyes seemed to be looking at the messed up bed. (A/N: Naughty, dirty mind, Sasuke!)
"Hm, yeah! He left just a while ago and I was about to clean up," Naruto said.
Sasuke turned to him, tearing his gaze from the bed. "Didn't Hyuuga stay to clean? How rude of him,"
"Nah. I told him to go. He'd be late for work. It doesn't bother me too much as how my place always sort of looks like this,"
"…I'll help," Sasuke said suddenly, on complete impulse.
Naruto looked surprised. "You don't have to!"
"I know that. But I want---but if you don't clean up quickly, we'll lose time on our project," Sasuke said hastily, changing direction. Damn. I can't believe I was about to say that aloud! Actually to Naruto's face! 'I want to,' What the hell was I thinking? I've got to control my stupid thoughts and never, ever say them aloud like that again! Stupid, stupid, stupid…Thank god, Naruto didn't notice anything…
Naruto stared at him, then grinned. "That's so like you, Sasuke, always thinking about work. Work, work, work. That's probabl the only thing running through your mind,"
If you don't include yourself in that….then, I guess so…Sasuke thought, then shook his head vigorously.
"Am I right? That's all you ever think about, huh?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke shrugged. "Usually,"
Naruto grinned. "I knew it!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's clean so then we can go,"
"Yes, sir!" Naruto saluted, and then began picking up his clothes and stuffing them into the closet.
Sasuke gathered up the paper balls and threw them into the garbage. "I thought the fight scene only used swords, not 'bombs',"
"Yeah, well. I got carried away and then Neji joined in. It was incredibly fun!" Naruto said.
Sasuke hid his scowl. "That is nice," he said, and then proceeded to the bed, eager to fix it before he lost his mind. Before he picked up the sheets, he noticed something on the covers, and bent to pick it up. Realizing it to be a photo, Sasuke turned it over and saw a picture of two young boys. One was obviously Naruto; the blonde was grinning his happy goofy grin, and giving the peace sign, his other arm around the shoulders of another boy who looked really familiar with red hair and light eyes. After a moment of thinking hard, Sasuke turned to Naruto and said, "Is this Gaara?"
Naruto looked up and blinked. "Hey, where'd you get that?" he asked.
"It was just lying on your bed," Sasuke replied.
Naruto got up and walked over. "Oh, must have fell off when I practically tackled Neji into the wall,"
Sasuke practically cringed at what Naruto had just said. He tried not to scowl or show any angry emotions. Instead, he turned his attention back to the photo and asked again, "So, is this Gaara?"
"Yep! This was about six years ago, right before he moved. Ummm, I think we were around twelve," Naruto said, looking thoughtful. "Yeah, that sounds about right," Naruto took the photo from Sasuke and examined it. "I forgot all about this picture. God, does Gaara look happy. At least, more than now at least,"
"I didn't know the two of you were friends. You don't talk much at school," Sasuke said.
"But we are friends! Gaara was--no still is--my best friend!" Naruto said excitedly.
Sasuke stared at him as though he hadn't heard correctly. "…Best friend?"
"Oh yeah! When we were little, we got along really well because we were so similar with our backgrounds and stuff. We were best friends all through grade school. Then, Gaara moved to another city before junior high, and we kept in touch and all, but things weren't exactly the same,"
"But he's here now. Did he move back?"
"Yep! Um, a year ago, he moved back and our friendship was renewed! Things are still a bit iffy, that's why it's still sort of hard talking to him at school and all, but Gaara's always been my best friend, and probably always will be!" Naruto said grinning again. He then turned and pinned the picture back onto the wall above his bed.
Sasuke watched him and felt something tugging at his gut. He couldn't put his finger on it, but knew it had to do with the fact that Naruto had said that Gaara was his best friend. And that Gaara would probably always be his best friend. Sasuke wasn't sure why that seemed to hurt him so much, but it did. It was like this odd unexplainable feeling, this emotion that had erupted the instant Naruto had said those words. But, why? It wasn't like Sasuke cared if Naruto had a best friend. He didn't want to be Naruto's best friend. Why did it seem to matter so much to him who Naruto hung out with? They weren't really even friends, were they?
But, as Sasuke continued watching Naruto, who was now grinning up at all of his pictures on the wall, he couldn't help but feel a bit out of place. It was as though he felt like he didn't really belong in Naruto's world. They weren't even friends. Practically everyone Sasuke had met that was a friend of Naruto's was on the collage of photos. Even Neji was on there, and that one thought caused a raging hot anger to boil up in Sasuke. So what did it matter if he wasn't on there? They were just partners for a school project, they were just stars playing opposite roles for a play; they weren't friends, or buddies, or anything. They were just classmates.
Sasuke sighed. He glanced up at the wall and felt unusually depressed. And lonely. For some reason, feeling left out of Naruto's life in this way made him feel really alone. Why was he feeling this way anyway? Why couldn't he shake the feeling that he wanted to be closer to Naruto? Be closer than anyone else that was on the wall. Be the closest possible to the positive, happy-go-lucky, hyper, loud-mouthed blonde boy, who no matter what always seemed to bring a smile to Sasuke's lips and an odd warmth to his heart.
Sasuke turned to Naruto who had been during this while trying to fold the covers, but had somehow managed to entangle himself within them. Sasuke smiled despite himself, but then quickly stopped, realizing what it was he was doing. No. Not again, he thought with frustration. He looked back at Naruto and once again felt the lightness in his heart, and the smile tugging uncontrollably at his lips.
As Sasuke began to help Naruto out of his mess, only one thought wandered throughout his confused mind.
I don't. I don't like him. I don't like Naruto. I refuse.