Alright, from here on out the chapters are going to be numbered correctly!
Warning: Bashing of Sasuke's hair. Lots of it.
Chapter 15: I Wanna Be A Star, Star, Star (yes, it's Sailor moon. Wanna fight!)
Lee could see his reflection in the window out of the corner of his eye. It took all of his willpower to not turn his head and look.
"Lee, it's right up there." Naruto intoned and pointed at a building.
It looked like one of those corporate buildings that for some reason had high-class hair stylists and makeup artists stationed inside; like from those extreme-makeover shows. Lee was dubious; Naruto got his hair done here? It didn't seem like it suited him. Naruto should get his hair cut at a cutesy pink boutique by a super-cute girl.
"He's going to like you, you have great hair, Lee. Eh, well except for the cut. But you take good care of it." Naruto reached up and fingered a blunt lock. Lee twitched his face away nervously.
"Hmph." Sasuke muttered. "That's if he can breath after laughing so hard."
Naruto glared. "You know, you didn't have to come, teme. Besides, he wouldn't even want to touch your hair. He'd be scared of bird poop coming out."
"..." Sasuke made a face. The face with the round eyes and the lips wrinkled and turned down. That face he made when he first saw Gai-sensei and Lee. Together.
But that was normal; everyone made that face.
"Besides, he wouldn't even be able to cut it. There's too much gel." Naruto finished. See the face, multiplied tenfold.
"Anyway, come on, he'll be upset if we're late. Well, not really, he acts kinda stoned so he won't really care. But someone else might take him if we're not there on time." Naruto seized Lee's arm and pulled him into the building. Sasuke shook the expression from his face and followed.
The three got into a mirrored elevator. Naruto immediately slapped his hands over Lee's eyes (underneath the shades) because the elevator was well lit.
"I'll keep it like this, Lee, so you don't get a chance to see. We'll blindfold you so you can't see when you get your haircut." Naruto cheerfully explained in order to stifle Lee's protests.
"If you say so, Naruto." Lee responded, dubious once again.
The elevator jerked to a halt, and the doors opened with a 'ding!' Sasuke led Lee out so he wouldn't trip, and Naruto kept Lee's eyes covered.
Naruto pushed Lee to the end of the long room, to a larger space where a blonde man with shoulder-length hair stood.
"Yoo-hoo! Genma-kun!" Naruto whistled.
The blonde man grinned lecherously. "Hey, Naru-chan." he stepped back and held out his arm, expansively welcoming Lee to sit down, not that he could see.
Naruto told Lee to keep his eyes shut as he pushed the taller boy down into the chair.
"How ya' been, Naru-chan?" Genma grinned again.
Naruto enveloped Genma in a hug. "I've been fine, Genma-kun. School, you know."
Sasuke didn't like what he was seeing. They looked like they knew each other much better than a hairdresser and a hairdressee should.
"Kawaii! Naru-chan!" Genma fluffed Naruto's hair.
"...Naruto?..." Lee asked worriedly. He heard Sasuke make grumbling sounds.
"Oh, Lee-kun, turn around, would ya'?" Genma switched his attention to Lee, who awkwardly swivelled the chair around to where he thought the hairdresser was. Genma seized the armrests and angled Lee so he would be staring straight at Genma, instead of a mirror.
"So, Naruto tells me you're looking for something new?" Genma smiled. "Open your eyes, please."
Lee opened his great round eyes. "Hn? You have very thick eyelashes, I guess the girls are jealous," Genma complimented. "But they're a little thinker on the bottom than they should be, I might have someone come to thin them out."
"Not really, Genma-san." Lee stared fixedly at the man's chest.
"Hmm..." Genma rubbed his chin. "I think I know what I want to do. It's too bad your hair isn't longer, I could do so much more with it."
"We just want to get rid of the helmet hair, Genma-kun." Naruto was sitting on the shelf where the supplies were kept, swinging his legs.
"Um-m." Genma agreed. "But come back when it's grown out a bit." He began to look around; maybe for his scissors? Shampoo?
What he saw was Sasuke. He stared for a minute. Sasuke stared back. It was...yet another staring contest.
"Dude," Genma finally broke the silence, "Get a new barber. The one you have now sucks. You'd be much cuter with a different haircut."
The vein in Sasuke's cheek twitched. "I'm going out for a bit, Naruto." he said through clenched teeth. "I'll be back in a half hour, tops." Sasuke spun on his heel. A girl who had just finished getting her hair styled squealed.
Once Sasuke was out of range, Genma stood Lee up, keeping his eyes shut once again, and led him to the sink to wash his hair.
"He sets off my gaydar, Naru-chan," Genma commented.
"And you set off mine, Genma-kun." Naruto wryly responded.
"Really? Sasuke's gay?" Lee asked. He couldn't see, because there was a towel over his eyes.
"Well, his hair isn't. It's straight. But Sasuke probably is, most likely it was all the fangirls." Naruto explained.
"I...don't understand." Lee mumbled.
Genma decided to explain. "His hair doesn't attract guys. It repels them. Because it looks like rooster-butt. But girls don't care, because they're weird."
Lee trembled as the hot water was sprayed onto his head. "You're not making my hair...either way, right?"
Genma chuckled. "Well, most hair isn't either way. I just made that up because his is ugly."
"Oh,"
Genma poured a quarter of shampoo into his palm and began to lather it into Lee's hair. "I like you, kid. You know what's important."
"Eh?"
"Hair-care, kiddo. Hair-care."
"Oh, well I try to take care of my body–gaag!" Lee answered amiably before Genma turned on the cold water to rinse out the shampoo.
Genma removed the towel from Lee's eyes and used it to dry the boy's hair. He then took an eyemask and taped the elastic to either side of Lee's eyes, so the band wouldn't be in his hair.
By the time Lee was in the chair again, he was cloaked and had his hair pinned up.
"Hey, don't take too much off," Naruto grinned from the ledge.
"Yeah, yeah," Genma chuckled.
Lee could feel the snippets of hair trickling down to his neck, and could hear them skittering off the cloak. And he felt nervous once again. Was so much change really good? Would it really make him happy?
Maybe he should just quit, and wait till after highschool to move away from home and Gai-sensei, and live as a reclusive underwear model till the end of his days.
-
Genma didn't look at Naru-chan while he was working. But he did think about him.
Recently, Naru-chan had gone to a new school; he had stayed there longer than he had at others. But Naru-chan's demeanor hadn't changed in the slightest from when he was in a school where he was ignored, or beat up, or spoken down.
Genma had known Naru-chan for most of his life; he had at one time been a customer. Lots of prominent characters had, so it wasn't surprising that a high-ranked stylist like Genma had dallied in hobbies outside what people considered 'safe.'
He felt mild guilt for being a least part of the cause for Naru-chan's segregation. It wasn't all his fault though; not even mostly; only fractionally. It had been someone else, probably a cheating father who reacted in shock that his son was attending school with a child-whore and revealed Naru-chan's secret.
And it was the parent's fault that the children despised Naru-chan because of his family situation, and his mental state.
But Genma was glad that no matter what, Naru-chan still grinned like a fox and ignored it. Or at least seemed to.
That way, Genma didn't need to feel guilty.
-
By the time Sasuke got back, Genma was almost done with the cut. The normal scissors were clutched between his teeth with ease, perhaps because he smoked and was used to it. The blonde man was using the rough scissors to make the edges of the cut more uneven; when it dried, it seemed that Lee's hair would fluff out. A bit like Naruto's, perhaps, but not so much because Lee's hair was longer.
As he finished, Genma picked up a tinier pair of scissors-they looked like the kind used to trim baby fingernails.
"Now, kiddo, I wouldn't advise doing this at home," Genma lectured. He had taken off the eyemask and had turned the chair around again. "One time my uncle cut off his eyelashes because people said he looked like a girl and they never grew back, but most people don't do this so I wouldn't know much about it.
"just come on back if you need them done again." Before starting, Genma ordered Lee to look at the ceiling. Quickly but carefully, the three lashes on each side were decimated, leaving the thick dark lashes that surrounded Lee's round eyes to dominate.
Sasuke was struck by how...normal Lee looked at that moment.
Genma replaced the mask. "Ok now, I'm gonna dry you're hair and then you can see."
Lee heard the whirring of the blow dryer and felt the hot air scalding his scalp; Genma's hands rummaged along his scalp and a comb picked up certain areas.
The whirring stopped and the mask was removed. Lee still had his eyes shut.
"Lee, you can look now." Naruto urged.
Lee opened his eyes and found his reflection right next to Naruto. He gasped.
"Bi-bishounen!" He exclaimed.
Sasuke's face took on a sour look. But maybe he would lose some of his fangirls...
"Lee, you're pretty!" Naruto giggled.
Lee gaped at his reflection for a moment longer, and began to smile. He-he wasn't a freak anymore. He was normal.
"Glad you like it," Genma stood back and admired his work. "I hear you're paying by card?"
Lee handed over his gold card. And made sure he left Genma a very generous tip.
"Kay, Lee, let's fix your wardrobe. Green isn't good, yanno." Naruto stood and stretched his legs.
Sasuke spun around and began to walk back to the elevator.
They forgot the sunglasses.
TBC!
Aww...cuuuute! Lee-kun's pretty! And he is...I drew a picture of him bcz I'm avoiding my exceedingly important project...but no matter. Too bad you can't see it, because not only do I not have a deviantart account, I don't have a scanner! Yet. I plan to buy one as soon as I get a job.
0.0 I wonder if someone else will draw me a fanart so I won't be a loser for drawing fanart for my own fic?
Review please! It makes me sad to see fics with "omg thei went 2 the malland narto was like omg saske ur hawtt." that have tons and tons of reviews. Not that mine are good, but still.
Coming to you unedited as usual.