A/N: I desire someone to come and finish my job training for me, because the love for this story has been AMAZING and I desire to do nothing else but give you fabulous people more chapters. But, real life. Woe and tragedy.
Thank you guys, so much, for giving this story a try! I know it's weird (I promise the characters are a little strange FOR REASONS), and the plot seems nonexistent right now, but I promise that it is, in fact, real. But I'm glad you guys are enjoying it, and I hope you continue to do so!
I do not own Naruto, and am making no money off of this work.
Chapter Two:
Familiar Faces
Sasuke
So, Sasuke liked to plan. He liked steps and stages and knowing outcomes, and the satisfaction that came with reaching an endpoint due to his own careful machinations. He knew his intelligence was well above average for a boy his age, and took great pleasure in cultivating that which caused his father to look on him with quiet pride.
He was careful. He was controlled. He was one step ahead of everyone else, always.
Except now, he was sitting outside the principal's office on his first day of school. Next to a bright blonde moron who kept swinging his feet and smiling like the two of them had traded friendship bracelets instead of swinging fists.
So, okay. Sasuke was willing to admit to some general confusion about how all of this had gone down.
For someone who prided himself on following such clear cut road maps, Sasuke found himself very (secretly, because like hell that idiot got to see anything other than his default 'the world is stupid' face) bewildered by how royally fucked up the line between point A and point B had gotten.
It was just really, really comfortable to blame the idiot for everything. And so Sasuke did, with every fiber of his being.
"I think you bruised my kidneys," the idiot in question said. "Like, there may be blood the next time I piss."
Sasuke cocked an eyebrow. Because the moron sounded so happy about it, and Sasuke didn't actually have a giant, flashing sign that said REALLY. WHAT THE FUCK? to hold up. Hence, the eyebrow.
"Also, I think they called our parents," Naruto continued. "Because the principal's secretary just put her head down on the desk, and she might actually be crying, and my mom sort of makes people feel that way inside. So."
"I don't actually want to talk to you," Sasuke said. "You know that, right?"
Naruto gave him a very patient look.
"Of course you do," he said. "Or else you wouldn't have hit me, Sasuke."
And Sasuke wasn't normally talkative, and especially not with people he hated so much, but he also had to know.
"Why," he said, a bit desperately, because he was pretty sure that this was what drowning felt like. "Why."
But his quest for understanding (this was how it started, Sasuke knew that, and yet he still couldn't stop himself) was interrupted by the addition of another voice.
"Bitchcakes," a woman said, red hair falling like a flag, grin on her face, staring at them with Naruto's eyes and Sasuke was so doomed. "You are grounded forever."
"Lies," Naruto fired back. "You're totally proud of me. Pretty sure I'm about to get suspended, and I didn't even need fire to do it."
"That right there," the woman said, eyes narrowed. "What you just said. That was a challenge."
Naruto shrugged. Sasuke ignored them both and focused very hard on becoming one with the wall behind him. Not because he was afraid, but because he kind of needed to laugh, a bit hysterically and for a really long time, and Uchihas just didn't do that sort of thing.
"You're already here," Naruto reminded her. "I mean, the effort would be minimal. Just saying."
For a moment, there was silence, and not because the redheaded woman had joined Sasuke in horrified contemplation. She was considering it, Sasuke realized, and felt something die a little inside his brain.
"No," the woman finally sighed sorrowfully. "Age of majority, or whatever. Pretty sure they could arrest me now."
"Sucks," Naruto agreed, all sympathy.
"And who is this strapping young man, wearing what I assume are the imprints of your knuckles and knees?"
"This is Sasuke!" Naruto said, all smiles, like they were best friends forever and ever, and Sasuke really wanted to know what he had done in another life to deserve two sets of bitch-crazy blue eyes lasered in his direction.
"Aw," Kushina said, taking in Sasuke's dark hair and purple and blue mottled pale skin. "He's so sad on the inside. Like a panda. Naruto, you punched an infant panda."
"No, I didn't!" Naruto said, and he sounded so offended for reasons Sasuke never, ever wanted to explore. "He's not a panda. He hit me back! Sasuke, tell her you're not a panda!"
"Shut up, idiot," Sasuke said, because he wasn't going to deny being a panda, not when crazy mom was still staring at him.
"Naruto, leave him alone," Kushina said sternly. "Can't you see that he's all sensitive and shit? He's not Bitchface, he's just crying on the inside."
"He's totally Bitchface," Naruto assured her. "But you're right; he's got a gooey center underneath."
"Like a candy bar," Kushina said, with a head nod made of wisdom.
"Sasuke," Naruto said, blue eyes big and earnest and so fucking ridiculous with their ring of bruises. "Sasuke, it's okay. Weep your manly panda tears. I'm here for you."
And Sasuke put his head in his hands, because it was either start laughing until said panda tears made an appearance, or scream himself into an insanity-fueled fury.
"How'd you get here so fast?" Naruto asked, ignoring Sasuke's imminent breakdown entirely.
"I got in the car right after you sent that text," his mom answered. "Got the phone call from the principal's secretary on the way over. Sweet lady."
"Mom, she's been crying on her desk ever since she talked to you."
"Yeah, well, she's been around since my time. I'm sure she remembers me fondly."
"Excuse me," a new voice said, and Sasuke whipped his head back up, because this was the worst thing ever. "Can anyone explain why my son appears to be weeping into his hands?"
"You must be Mommy Panda!" Kushina said, crazy eyes alight.
Sasuke wanted to die.
Naruto, who was squinting at his mother, small and dark with pale skin and fine bones, said with tremendous concentration and reverence, "That's what you would look like as a girl."
Sasuke wanted to die harder.
"Mom," he said, with an impressive amount of calm.
"Sasuke," she said, taking in his puffy face with a faint line of worry between her brows. "Baby, are you all right?"
"Baby," Naruto mouthed, and collapsed in a silent fit of laughter.
"Your mom calls you Bitchcakes," Sasuke hissed back.
"Wait. Mommy Panda, you have to understand," Kushina said, all seriousness, grabbing earnestly at the other mother's hands. "It wasn't their fault. Our boys were lost to a biological imperative. It's been around since the dawn of time. They beat each other out of love."
"I…see," Sasuke's mother said, and there was a worrying sheen of quiet amusement underneath the concern in her eyes.
"Stop letting your mom infect my mom with her crazy," Sasuke demanded, nudging Naruto's ribs none too gently with his elbow.
The look Naruto gave him was made of pity.
"What, you can't see it?" he asked. "Oh, Sasuke."
"So, should we make them hug it out?" Sasuke's mother suggested, because apparently Sasuke's entire life had been a lie up until this point, and his mom actually wanted him to suffer.
Sasuke shot her a look brimming with betrayal and pain. His mom returned it with a serene smile.
Okay, yeah. He could see it now.
"I'm Kushina," Naruto's mother added, and she still hadn't released Sasuke's mother's hands.
"Mikoto."
Naruto watched them with a bright smile. Sasuke stared at the three of them like maybe there was an open window around that he could utilize.
"I believe the principal's secretary is ready to see us now," Mikoto said. "Although, she appears to be waving us in with a tear-stained handkerchief."
Naruto laughed, loud and long, and Kushina finally released Mikoto's hands so that she could storm the office doors and throw them open.
"Ms. Seto!" Sasuke heard her shout. "Love of my life, apple of my eye! Tell me how much you missed me!"
Sasuke watched his mother follow Kushina with a sweet, tiny smile made of perfectly fake innocence, listened as Naruto laughed warm and solid at his side, and absolutely refused to acknowledge that he was smiling too.
…
So, no suspension.
The principal had wanted it, Sasuke had seen it in the way he'd looked at Naruto with great despair, like the kid was personally responsible for every grey hair and nervous twitch he possessed. But, he'd also seemed just very appropriately terrified of Naruto's mom, and Sasuke's own mother had sat at her side and agreed with everything Kushina demanded via crazy eyes, and so the principal had squeaked out a three day sentence of detention and then promptly kicked them all out of his office.
Sasuke completely sympathized with the nervous breakdown he was pretty sure he heard once the office doors were shut behind them.
After that, the boys were gathered up by their respective mothers, and Sasuke all but sprinted out of the building, spooked, because Naruto looked like he was seriously considering that hugging thing.
"See you tomorrow, Sasuke!" Naruto called, all good cheer, and Mikoto smiled all the way home like she knew a secret, and this was Sasuke's life.
He waited in his room once they got home, stomach hot and tight, because he knew his dad would be back eventually. His mother let him sprint up the stairs with a smile and a soft brush to the back of his head, and Sasuke knew that his dad wouldn't be angry, not really, but the thought of disappointing him made Sasuke want to curl up in a ball of unhappiness.
He was paging through his text books, brain on miserable autopilot, when he heard his bedroom door squeak open. He tensed, ready to start spilling apologies, only to sigh when he felt the tug of a tiny hand at his sleeve.
"Misami," he said.
The four year old stood by his desk, staring solemnly out of wide grey eyes.
"Mommy says you can't play with me right now, because you're sad," she announced, and then tilted her head. "Why are you sad?"
Sasuke hauled himself out his chair and scooped his sister up into his arms, because she should never look so upset, and he considered it his personal mission to make sure she never did.
"I'm not sad," he said. "See? Playing with you right now."
He gave her a bounce, but she didn't smile, just continued to stare at him out of those long grey eyes that seemed so familiar to him, had spawned prickles of fierce love and protection and recognition since the second his mom had placed her in his arms. He'd been eleven when she was born, and she'd felt like his reason for everything, and Sasuke hadn't known how much he'd needed one. She'd been tiny, barely above six pounds, wrapped in warm blankets, and she'd opened up those impossible eyes the instant he started holding her, and in that moment he'd never doubted that he had to do better by her, had to protect her from anything and everything, and always let her know how much she mattered.
Sometimes Sasuke wondered just who he was trying so hard to do better than.
"I'm okay, Misami," Sasuke said. "Promise."
She kicked her little feet a bit, eyeing him contemplatively, before putting her head on his shoulder, and her arms around his neck. It was an old move with them, familiar, and Sasuke rocked her a little, grateful for the weight of her against his chest. She was a princess, and a brat most of the time, but she also had her quiet moments, just like this, and Sasuke treasured them.
A throat being cleared interrupted Sasuke's gentle swaying, and his cheeks flushed a furious red. His father was standing in the doorway, looking just as uncomfortable with his son's display of vulnerability as Sasuke did. Not that he was any better; Misami owned the both of them, a fact she proved by opening her eyes and stating, "Daddy, I want some cookies."
Fugaku cleared his throat.
"It's almost dinner time, Misami," he said, which was really obviously not a 'no'. "And I need a minute with your brother."
Misami sighed, and then obliged with a final squeeze to Sasuke's neck, and a look in her father's direction that very clearly communicated, Yeah, I'm totally going to get those cookies.
"So," Fugaku said, once Misami had scooted out the door. "Your mother tells me that you've been making friends."
Shame snaked its way up Sasuke's spine, and he felt his shoulders droop.
"I'm sorry," he said, barely audible, because the back of his throat felt thick and swollen.
Fugaku fidgeted, and Sasuke had an acute, clarifying moment of just how awkward this conversation was going to be (although nothing would ever be as bad as the time his dad had tried to give him 'The Talk', and they'd ended up sputtering helplessly at each other for a while, until his mother had come in, given her husband a pitying look, handed him a baby Misami, shooed him out of the room, and proceeded to explain things with great detail and a serene smile until Sasuke had actually wondered if it was possible to die of emotional pain and started eyeing his third story window as a viable escape route). He and his dad just didn't do outward expressions of emotion. Apparently, it was an Uchiha thing.
Family reunions were legendary levels of awkward.
"Sasuke," his father said slowly, like he knew it was already going to be impossible to get the words out, and so he had to pick them with care. "Sometimes I wonder who's shadow you're trying to live up to."
Sasuke blinked, confused. Fugaku sighed, apparently saddened that Sasuke hadn't gotten the entire thesis of this conversation from that one sentence, and so he would have to speak more.
"You're my son," he said. "My only son. You've done so much already, so many wonderful things. I've been…very proud of you. But you still have these expectations of yourself, Sasuke."
Sasuke flushed even redder, and ducked his head. Praise from his father, communicated in more than small smiles and subtle actions, was shooting-star levels of rare.
"I hope," his father concluded softly. "That I am not the one who has put them there."
"No," Sasuke said.
"All right," Fugaku said, and something like humor warmed his face. "Just…promise me that this won't become a thing. You beating up a different child every day."
Sasuke kind of wanted to melt into his tastefully patterned carpet.
"No, Sir," he said again.
"Good," his father said, and then, because he had apparently reached his quota of outward emotion, added. "Dinner time."
"COOKIES," they heard Misami screech from the first floor.
Fugaku winced with a perfectly straight face, a special talent of his. Sasuke would never, ever own to how much he was laughing on the inside.
"Okay," he said, and headed for the door, and then smiled a little on the outside, because his father brushed his shoulder as he passed.
…
That night, Sasuke dreamed of bodies. Of silent rooms where there should have been sound, and wooden floorboards stained and swollen with blood. He dreamed of blank, lifeless faces, and a little girl walking out of the carnage with quiet grace and a blood spattered party dress.
She took Sasuke's hand, limp with horror and helplessness, in her little one and tugged him down to her level. He heard her satisfied sigh over the screams he hadn't even realized he'd been emitting.
"Brother," she said softly, using those familiar eyes to blink at him, and touched his forehead with her tiny fingers.
Sasuke came to, drenched in sweat and tangled in his sheets. And it was horrible, really horrible, because he didn't feel like he'd woken up.
"Sasuke," his mother said, from where she was sitting on the side of his bed, and she looked blurry, transparent.
"You're not real," he gasped.
He watched her face crease with concern, and he wanted to scream, because he could see through it.
"You're having a nightmare," she said softly. "I heard you. It's okay, Sasuke. I'm here, I promise."
He wanted to ask her if she believed in parallels. If people could be different things based on different circumstances, or if self was something constant. He wanted to ask her where Misami was.
But her fingers were carding through his hair, soft and sweet and real, and Sasuke fell back asleep with a grateful sigh.
….
They didn't talk about it the next day. His mother tried, reminded him that he'd had nightmares ever since he was little, and they were nothing to be ashamed of, but Sasuke just scooped Misami off the floor and held her out face-first in his mother's direction, whispering the word cookies until Misami let out an ear-splitting squeal of demand.
Okay, so not his best or brightest maneuver. But he was a desperate teenager who really didn't want to talk to his mom about his problems.
The other kids at school whispered. They pointed at his bruises, and murmured behind their hands, and Sasuke gave them all his very best fuck off and die by fire eyes until he could escape to his first period classroom.
Only to have a small and silent aneurism upon opening the door and realizing that the only people inside the room were the pink-haired girl from yesterday, the teacher with the mask and the porn addiction, and the blonde idiot who beamed and bounced in his direction right away.
"Sasuke!" he shouted, because he was apparently incapable of speaking at a volume lower than 'deafen thy neighbors'. "You look like shit!"
"Good morning, Sasuke," Sakura added, seated on the windowsill and swinging her feet.
The teacher, Kakashi-sensei, didn't say anything. Just raised an absent hand and stayed buried in his book.
"So, I didn't piss blood last night!" Naruto crowed triumphantly. "I thought for sure I would!"
"That's so great, Naruto," Sakura said gently. "Because everyone here wanted to be updated on your bodily functions. Just really wonderful."
"My mom said that every time you're all mean, you're really just tugging my pigtails," Naruto informed her with a wide grin. "Because secretly you want to jump my sexy fifteen-year-old self." Naruto spread his arms wide. "Hate me. Hate me all over."
"She's never allowed to meet your mom," Sasuke said in spite of himself, because he might not have wanted to speak to any of them, but he could also imagine the possibilities, and that shit could not be permitted to occur.
"But Sasuke," Naruto said. "Someone has to give me away at the wedding."
"Oh, my God."
"I'll be wearing white," Naruto promised her. "Just for you."
Sasuke scrubbed the mental image from his eyes and considered the fact that technically he wouldn't be breaking his promise to his dad if he kicked the ass of the same student every day.
"How did you sleep, Sasuke?" Kakashi-sensei asked, into the silence, as Naruto beamed at everyone and Sasuke seriously considered tossing him over the nearest desk.
"What?" Sasuke asked. "Um. Fine."
"Why do you ask, Sensei?" Sakura said, with a little laugh. "That's a weird thing to say to your student."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, because he wasn't stupid, and Sakura wasn't as good at hiding the anger in her voice as she thought she was.
"Just wondering after the well-being of my precious ones," Kakashi-sensei said, pulling his face away from his book long enough to give Sakura a pleasant smile with his eyes.
Sakura smiled again. Sasuke wondered why it looked so brittle.
"You creep me out, Sensei," she said sweetly, and Naruto laughed.
"I'm wounded," Kakashi-sensei said, eyes back on his book, voice a million miles away. "Crushed. Buckling under the weight of my despair because your words and opinions are so hurtful and obviously matter so much to my life-"
"Why do his bruises look so manly?" Naruto interrupted, poking mournfully at his own bruises in his window reflection. "Like, tragic and romantic, and I look like those pissed off cats with swollen cheeks, I looked in the mirror this morning, I know this to be true."
"It's the hair," Kakashi-sensei answered. He paused, squinted his eyes at Sasuke for a second. "Yep. The hair."
"But I don't want a duck-butt hairdo!" Naruto wailed.
Sakura threw a book at his head.
Sasuke slid into his seat and called upon every awkward-making, stone wall Uchiha superpower passed to him by his ancestors of angsty bastards. He could do this. He could ignore them.
"By the way," Kakashi-sensei added. "Your detention this week is with me. After school. And Sakura's volunteered to help."
Motherfucker.
"Bonding!" Naruto shouted, like it was his favorite thing. "I'm bringing snacks. We can share our innermost feelings over cheese crackers."
"You're all idiots," Sasuke muttered, from where his face was now getting to know his desk.
"Ignore him," Naruto advised, in the loudest fucking whisper known to humanity. "My dad explained it to me last night. He insults us because he can't admit his affection out loud. His penis is getting in the way. We have to be sensitive to his manly, penis-inspired turmoil."
Sasuke laughed.
With his head against the desk, Sasuke laughed, ignoring Sakura's warm smile, Kakashi-sensei's considering look, and the idiot's answering grin.
Sasuke laughed, and refused to wonder why it only felt okay because it was the four of them together.
...
A/N: Um. Yeah. I promise that there's a reason for Sasuke being...like this *hides from potential projectiles* Next chapter: Kakashi POV. I am a man of mystery because I damn well say so. Stay tuned. Happy Reading!