Anou...I'm very sorry, but I got an error on my compu-chan, so I had to completely wipe all my files. And re-write chapter 10.
Dammit, now I have to rewrite three chapters of my Naruto/Tsunade saga, too!
!$(#(&$!
Hopefully, this won't turn out too badly.
However, we will all be in for some shorter chapters.
Disclaimer: If I had a job as a manga-ka, you'd think I have a better computer!
Chapter 10: Opening: Bloody Dream
Naruto-chan stood on the stage. The stage that wasn't really a stage, but more of a scarred table located at a sleazy bar.
Tiny Naruto's eyes watered indignantly. They were making fun of him, laughing at him. The rich man in the suit, who had brought him here in the first place, had said that they would loooove him, because he was so cute.
Naruto had agreed, as he sat on the expensive leather seat of the expensive black car and fingered his lacy tunic that he had been dressed in.
His white, lacy tunic.
He looked like an angel, they said.
He had when they picked him up off the street, even with his dirt-smeared face and ragged clothes. It truly was amazing, how he had managed to survive so long. Five years old, and on the streets, where dozens of thugs were just waiting to get their hands on the son of the guy who convicted their buddies.
Seven years now, because one year ago, a handsome man (if a little pompous,) by the name of Ebisu had picked him up off the hard concrete, and told him that he had what it took to make people love him.
They were all family men, mafia leaders, big-business corporations, leaders of law firms and the like.
But when Naruto was at the secret bar, he felt like trash because of the way they looked at him with contempt.
Still, he continued to dance, because he had this URGE to, and he couldn't stop until he had gained this release, that he so desperately needed. He felt confined if he didn't.
He usually didn't get it until he had been taken to one of the curiously well-furnished (compared to the foulness of the bar), bedrooms, with one of those men.
Those men tended to not be old, but young. Just coming into the biz from a family inheritance, being what they thought was overworked, pissed at their wives and girlfriends (and sometimes, whores-on-call.)
So they came to Naruto-chan, who was a baby, unassuming, who wanted them there. There to do that
But no matter how Naruto relieved their tension, or how often, they coldly left, and offered him nothing more. When he danced on the table, they hooted just the same, as if they hadn't seenall that before anyway, from prior visits.
One young man that came once wasn't even old enough to attend, Ebisu had once protested.
The teenager had only looked at Ebisu with cold eyes, and was recognized for his prosperous family.
He was allowed in from then on.
He came to visit Naruto often, in the furnished back-room.
Naruto believed that they both needed their relief, identified with the young man more than the others, because they were both children.
That same young man came time and time again, leaving no room for others to come in and pass
off their frustrations on Naruto.
If Naruto hadn't been so impure, he might have believed himself in love.
It soon came to the point where men only came to see Naruto dance. The main source of revenue for Naruto and Ebisu was the rich, cold teen.
And then it all stopped.
The young man stopped coming.
Itachi stopped coming.
And he never came back.
So Naruto refused to work, and ended up on the streets again. Ebisu left, just like Itachi. But for all the wrong reasons.
Hey, Naruto. Naru-chan.
I won't leave you all alone.
I'll be there when the local thugs are beating you up for sex at night.
I'll be there when you're starving in the daytime.
I won't leave you alone. Ever.
Aishiteru, koi-kun.
Naruto opened his eyes.
He couldn't really say if he had been asleep or not.
It had been a dream, hadn't it?
It had come to the point where he was reliving his memories, too.
It was unclear when he had awoken, when the dreaming had stopped, and the reminiscing had begun. It was dreamlike, all the way through, though. Naruto fancied his entire life a dream.
He had loved every second of it, after all. Especially the parts where he was rammed in the face. Or
ass.
Because, he was sick, after all.
Got that right.
Otherwise, I wouldn't be heeeere, would I?
Nope. Absolutely not, Koi-kun.
Naruto stared at the dark ceiling. Dimmer than usual. It wasn't time to be awake yet. He had awhile.
To not think at all.
Maybe...this was what he would do over the holiday.
Fifty minutes later, his alarm went off, playing old sixties tunes and classical.
Naruto sat up and went to get ready for school. Iruka would be surprised.
-
Sasuke sat up in bed exactly half a second before his alarm began to beep. He switched it off to prevent the irritating noise, and on again so he wouldn't forget to set it later.
He padded into his bathroom blearily and stepped in the shower. And turned it on. Cold.
Now fully awake, he turned the nob all the way to the left, until the pounding water was scalding and steam was probably spilling out from beneath the door.
Picking up his special shampoo, he noted that he would need a new bottle soon, and made a mental note to add it to the shopping list. He squeezed a quarter into his hand and lathered his hair generously.
Too generously. Sasuke got soap in his eyes.
"Fuck!" Sasuke scrunched his eyes shut and rubbed them furiously as they burned.
Opening his eyes under a spray of hot water had never appealed to him, anyway.
Finishing his shower as quickly as possible (before he could screw up again...) Sasuke used his special body wash (proven to repel fangirls Sasuke didn't think it worked) and his normal-person
face wash (hey, it wasn't his fault he had naturally flawless skin.)
When he stepped out of the shower, the first thing he did was wipe a clean spot on the mirror and towel-dry his hair, with his eyes shut. They still hurt like hell.
Sasuke blunderingly dried his body, face, and applied deodorant. Kakashi called from the kitchen and asked what the fuck Sasuke's problem was, he was going to wake up the neighbors.
Sasuke told Kakashi to fuck off, and wrapped the towel around his waist.
So he could go to his room and dress, silly!
Sasuke put on the same boring old uniform that he wore every day. He wished that it could be kermit green, or something equally as hideous, but Kakashi refused to "let his charge walk around looking like a love-struck nerd that was obsessed with youth."
"Hey, what happened Sasuke?" Kakashi asked as Sasuke walked into the kitchen. "You get rejected or something?"
"Hunh?" Sasuke mumbled in confusion.
"Your eyes are red..." Kakashi prodded. "Like you've been crying..."
Sasuke walked to the fridge in response. "Need more shampoo," he informed Kakashi as he wrote on the hanging list.
"Oh. I see." Kakashi nodded knowingly. "You used extra because you're confessing to someone today, and it got in your eyes!"
"..." Sasuke favored his guardian with a disgruntled expression.
"Well then, hurry up, I have to go to work early!" Kakashi said cheerily.
Sasuke paused with a bite of egg still in his mouth. "Whharr?" He protested, swallowing. "But that means I'll have to sit there for a half hour with–"
"All your girlfriends!" Kakashi congratulated. "Make me proud, Sasuke! How many can you do before class starts! I really want to know!"
His charge growled. "Stop being such a kid! You're old!"
"Wanna take the subway at rush hour?"
Sasuke quieted, shooting Kakashi a glare every now and then.
"Didn't think so."
-
It was four-thirty in the morning.
Rock Lee had been up a half hour previous.
Perfecting his beautiful, youthful body of course.
But Rock Lee only wished it were beautiful in the first place.
He continued his katas, until five-thirty, and then went to shower.
And he looked in the mirror at his features.
The caterpillar eyebrows that he had inherited from his grandmother.
The cursed under-eyelashes had been given to him from his grandfather.
It appeared that in Lee's family, bad looks skipped around the generations.
The effect was quintupled by Lee's model-worthy parents.
Lie. They were models.
Lee leaned his round eyes towards the mirror hanging over the marble sink. It wasn't so bad when he could only see one part of himself at a time. At least his body was attractive.
...Lee knew that, at least. As he was an underwear model. And as long as no one ever found out besides his parents and his manager, his career would continue to flourish.
Lee stripped off his sweaty green basketball shorts and white tank before sinking into the full whirlpool bathtub for his customary soak.
Another plus for him: he took such good care of his body, that his skin was near perfect. Hardly any scarring.
Fifteen minutes later, he sighed and drained the water from the tub, turning on the showerhead to actually clean himself.
If he smelled bad, the kids at school would make worse fun of him than usual. Keyword, usual. Because usually, Lee endured about an hour of taunting, three spitballs, and two attempts to trip him in the halls. In addition to being trampled by the rabid fangirls of one Sasuke Uchiha.
Lee honestly despised those fangirls, almost as much as he despised Gai-sensei.
Gai-sensei happened to be the ugliest and weirdest teacher in school. The weirdest teacher in school, who had decided to latch onto the local ugly duckling who unfortunately wouldn't blossom into model-worthiness. Or even passable-worthiness. But instead of avoiding Gai-sensei and attracting more negative attention, Lee had opted to play the part of the teachers pet.
Lee wondered if maybe he had done something to draw the wrath of the gods to himself during his
previous life as a turtle.
"Lee, come get your breakfast," his mother called sweetly from the kitchen.
Obviously, Lee had.
"I know, I have to get dressed, Okaasan." Lee called drearily.
"Well hurry up, dear, the breakfast Ingrid made for you will get cold!" She responded gently.
Ingrid (the cook) (also the only person within the perimeter Lee considered uglier than himself,) grunted from the stove.
As Lee pulled on his clothes, he hoped that there was some way, some way, that he could repair his hopeless life.
-
By the time lunch came around, Kiba was tired of being in school. As a result, he snuck off campus to eat. And didn't come back for the rest of the day.
After all, nothing of interest had happened that day. Naruto was back to normal again, had been eating with his friends, Kiba had noted from his vantage on the roof (he had been avoiding his basketball coach, who wanted the team to practice during the lunch hour.)
So, in the interest of his sure-to-be ripped apart again and again muscles, Kiba opted to leave.
But there were some things that Kiba couldn't see.
-
Lee had obediently sat at his desk all day, silently dreading gym with Gai-sensei, as usual. He chose to eat inside the classroom that particular day, instead of finding a place to hide from the thugs that occupied the school in rampant (how had that happened?) numbers.
It struck him, how pathetic he was. He was all brawn, how come he didn't stand up to them?
Because he didn't want to be even more of an outcast. The Monstrous Ugly Green Kid Attacks Again! would be the headlines on the school papers.
Not wanting to feel as alone as usual, Lee slunk and stole an absent student's seat by the window. He enjoyed watching the normal people. Almost as much as his favored pastime of watching his own face.
The fangirls sat under their usual tree, some mooning and some glaring in the direction of Sasuke, who was sitting with the 'new kid', who was still 'new' because there had been no more transfers.
Lee supposed that the girls hated the new kid because he was prettier than them.
Prettier than the girls. The girls.
A boy, prettier than the girls.
And then, Lee resolved to make a change. He would become a beautiful person. Beautiful.
And he would be with the other beautiful people. Like the new kid.
Lee wondered why he didn't just think 'Naruto,' instead of 'the new kid.' After all, everyone in the school must have known his name by now.
Note: Based on what I know, Itachi is probably around fourteen. As in the dream, Naruto is seven or eight.
To Be Continued...
Well, that was a little odd.