Disclaimer: Nope. But I do enjoy going on those forums for people who bitch about the dub like they own it. They're pretty interesting.

Chapter 16: The Black Uniform.

Lee's eyes teared up. It–he couldn't believe it. For once, as he walked into school, he didn't feel like a walking plant. And it was all thanks to Naruto-kun.

However, his spirits soon dropped. When he had walked into school before, in all his planty-green glory, no one had said anything. Well, except for the odd 'wowza, it's the green-suited-wonderboy.'

But constant whisperings followed in his wake this Monday. Perhaps people thought he was foolish, narcissistic, stupid for thinking a new look would endear him to them.

With his head kept low, Lee made his way to the classroom. He was a little late today, because he had forgotten to begin his routine early so that he would have time to dry his hair. Not that he had to; he just liked the new fluffy feeling of it. What did people call it–novel? Yes, having hair not matted to your skull was a novelty.

As soon as he walked into the room with his head low so he wouldn't attract attention, Naruto immediately screwed everything over.

"Hey, Lee! Come over here, show Shikamaru!" the gaki waved enthusiastically. The Nara was half sitting, half leaning on Naruto's desk, with his usual uninterested demeanor.

Almost collectively, the heads swivelled and the mouths gasped.

"Uuwaan! Kawaii!" Ino squealed. "Naruto, that's Lee?"

"Un, Sasu and I took him out to relieve him of Gai's terror." Naruto crossed his arms with an accomplished air.

Shikamaru raised his eyebrows and whistled. "Wow, Lee. That's interesting."

Lee rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess. It's all thanks to Naruto, he helped a lot."

"Uwaan, he called Umino-kun by his first name!"

"So personal!"

Some nameless girls at the back of the classroom kyaa'd.

Lee blushed and Naruto laughed it off.

Ino slunk behind him and began to trace circles on his chest. "You know, I never noticed how built you were, Lee-kun," she murmured.

Hinata blushed and stammered. "Y-you look v-very ni-nice, Lee-san."

At this point, Sasuke stealthily snuck into the room. He was wearing a black hooded jacket, with the hood pulled over his head.

Sasuke was foiled as well, because Sakura squealed, "Hello, Sasuke-kun!" and some of the girls flocked towards him.

Sasuke slumped at his desk till first bell rang.

-

The teacher walked into the room and began to take attendance.

"Uchiha Sasuke-san?"

"Here."

"..." the teacher paused.

"..." Sasuke paused for longer.

"Sasuke-san. I'm afraid your jacket does not conform to school regulations. Please take it off." The teacher decided. Sasuke was a school favorite, for his grades, but even so...

Sasuke paused again. A few people were looking back at him already; the longer he took, the more would turn around. Naruto was eyeing him mistrustfully, too.

"Ne, Sasuke, you didn't start cutting yourself, did you?" the blonde brashly inquired.

The girls gasped and swivelled their heads to gaze in horror at Sasuke, who had his hands at his hood.

"..." Sasuke glared from beneath the hood. "No, baka."

"Sasuke-san. Please take off the hood and stop disrupting class. Shirosuke Hideki?"

"Here."

Sasuke painstakingly pulled down the hood. The girls that were still looking at him gasped; hearing the gasp, more people turned to look, and gasped in turn. So more and more people turned to look. All gasping. Except for some of the boys, who laughed.

"Wow, he got a scary haircut." Kiba snickered. Neji smirked.

"Oh no, Sasuke, you should have just stuck with rooster-butt." Naruto sighed dramatically.

The rooster-butt had been turned down. But that meant that it still flipped out in back; to match, the haircutter had flipped out the side bangs. Bam. Childhood-Lee-Style. Sans eyebrows. With glasses.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura murmured breathlessly; she looked forlorn. "Don't worry. I won't abandon you, even if every parishioner leaves your church..."

Some other girls squawked indignantly. "We wouldn't leave Sasuke-san for something like this!"

Naruto grinned mischievously. "Sorry, Lee. Looks like we'll have to take another trip to Genma-kun's. It's Sasuke-kun's turn this time."

Sasuke fumed and slid down in his seat. This was what he got for trying something new. Damn his father, insisting that he have the family traditional-cut. It was their fault. With their bad eyesight, they couldn't tell that it was ugly and—

Hence, the rooster-butt. Hell, they could have come up with something to match the Uchiha uchiwa, but nooooo.

"Sorry, Lee. This was supposed to be your time, but I guess Sasuke stole all the attention," Shikamaru stated drolly. "What a spoiled brat,"

Sasuke slid down further. This day was turning out to suck more and more.

Kakashi sat down at the kitchen table with his bowl of Lucky Charms. Sasuke trod into the kitchen, all doom and gloom as usual. Without even a good morning, he opened the cupboard and pulled out his own cereal; Special K.

Kakashi had always considered it a strange brand for a growing boy. But Sasuke was strange; so at the grocer he pretended he had a girlfriend that was on a diet.

Sasuke poured the cereal into the bowl, again without the 'good morning.' Then he went to the refrigerator to get the milk. He rummaged for a few minutes.

And rummaged again. But that was all.

"There's no milk." Sasuke deadpanned. "Why did you finish it?"

Kakashi blinked. "I had a bad dream last night and couldn't get back to sleep."

"So you drank milk?"

"I suppose I did."

"If you saw that there wasn't so much left, why didn't you leave it? Or go buy more yesterday?"

Kakashi grumbled. "I didn't think of it. Sorry for having job."

"Oh, you didn't think of it? What, should I have?" Sasuke shot back.

"Well, why didn't you? You have an allowance, you could have just asked me to pay it back!" Kakashi was getting ready to yell. "It's too early for this, Sasuke! Get over it! Make yourself some toast or something!"

Sasuke glared. His cheeks flushed and he felt something pushing at his eyes; he recalled the feeling as tears. He hadn't cried in a long time.

Rather, he didn't cry often; but it was always over a trivial matter. Because he himself had gotten out of hand.

"Fine," Sasuke muttered, looking away. "I'm not hungry anyway."

He poured the Special K back into the box, and strode quickly back to his room. Bad hair or not, he would take to subway to school today.

-

Naruto called Genma during lunch. The blonde pervert was delighted to fix Sasuke's bad hair, and everyone was content not to know who had done the cut in the first place.

Sasuke kept his hood up on the way; Lee was trotting along merrily, showing off his 'new look.'

"We can go look for clothes on Saturday," Naruto was telling him.

Some older women ooh'd at the two pretty boys, their eyes passing over Sasuke, dismissing him as a thug or drug addict.

"Sasuke, we can get Shikamaru to go along too, since we still need to work on the project." Naruto poked Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke blushed; he hadn't been paying attention.

"Maybe you're partners should come along too, Lee?" Naruto switched his attention back to Lee.

This time Sasuke flushed out of anger. Considering how reclusive Naruto had been when he first arrived, he was very flighty with people he knew.

And he was also seemed to play hard to get with everyone who seemed to like him-as soon as Shikamaru and he had started to battle for his affections, however slightly, Naruto suddenly seemed to become friends with a lot of new guys.

That kid, Neji, and Lee-they all seemed to be spending a lot of time around Naruto recently.

-

There was an apartment in America. It was shared by two boys attending the same college; finals were coming up soon, and then the semester would be over.

The boy sat down heavily. If exams were soon, that meant that soon it would be time to head home. His scholarship would be over, and he would have graduated.

His roommate stuck his head into the boys room and spoke in heavily accented japanese. The boy answered fluently; no, thank you, but he wasn't in the mood for pizza and beer with the guys. He would stay home and study. Maybe fix ramen, or order takeout.

The brunette roommate shrugged as if giving up a lost cause, as if his roommate hadn't joined him at the parties before.

The boy gave his roommate a dry glare, and commented that he needed to study as well, he had been slacking off recently.

The roommate spluttered before pointing and yelling something in english; the boy grinned and the roommate laughed easily. The roommate left and the boy turned on the desk lamp before closing the shades on his window to block out the city noises.

Once again, he sat down heavily and his eyes bored into the thick texts.

Soon it would be time to head home. What home meant, he wasn't sure.

-

Genma wet Sasuke's hair gleefully. "I can't believe you took Naru-chan so seriously! It's so funny!" the blonde man chortled.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the ceiling. He wished he weren't allowed to see like Lee; Genma-san's laughing face was almost too much to bear. He was glad when Genma began to snip at the bad cut and he had to close his eyes so he wouldn't get hair in them.

Naru-chan clapped gleefully but Sasuke refused to deepen his scowl for fear that Genma-san might accidentally snip off a piece of his ear by accident.

Shikamaru sighed because he was bored. Lee was impatient because he wanted to get ready for the dance.

Why he was so impatient, nobody knew, for the dance wasn't for another two weeks. The New Years Dance.

And for some reason, Naruto and his imaginary friend felt uneasy and apprehensive. Something would happen, their instinct told them, something big. But what it was, only one other man knew.

-

Sakura sat at her desk, eying the documents that she had paid a ridiculous sum of money to acquire. Normally, she wouldn't pay money simply to read; at any rate, she would have been very upset at losing the money, synonymous with the ability to by clothes and hair stylings and the like.

But she felt pleased, because soon Sasuke would be separated from the annoying Umino-san and Ino-pig would be all alone again.

She had this important information; all she needed to do was wait for the right opportunity to reveal itself. As it happened, such an opportunity was coming up; in about two weeks, to be precise.

TBC

Well, guys. About Sasuke's hair–it's the truth. That's what would happen. Sorry to burst your bubbles.

Anyway, I found it necessary to post this chapter a day early because tomorrow night I'm otherwise occupied...apparently...even though I certainly wasn't informed until recently...huh.

Please review! My inbox is hoooongryyyyy...