Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and Fairy Tail.
A/N: Thank you to fantastic5, meowy1986, Xenter, fizirazak, sasukefan95, Guest, narutouzumaki1993, fictionlover1993, nikki, sunnyside, Sydney, Alex277, ScarletFiona and JDarcy for reviewing the previous chapter and those who favorite and follow this story.
CHAPTER 3
"Man, I feel sorry for you but at the same time I want to say thank you for being partner with her," Naruto said seriously. "You're doing many of us a favor here."
Sasuke stared dumbly at the paper pinned to the soft board in front of him.
They were on their way to the rooftop earlier for lunch before they decided to stop by Mr Gildart's office to check for their respective partner on the History assignment. He was in the same state he was in since his eyes glued to his name and saw who he got paired with. Somehow, he remembered his earlier comment and felt sorry for himself. Sure he didn't dislike the red haired. He didn't know her, but from the way the students were talking about her sent shivers down his spine.
"Sasuke, don't die on me man!" Naruto grabbed his shoulder and shook him furiously trying to get his attention.
"You're the one dying if you don't stop shaking me soon," he threatened with a cold glare.
Instantly Naruto let go of him with a sheepish smile on his face.
"Come on, it's not that bad," Natsu supplied. "Just don't cross her and you will be fine. She's not going to be violent for no reason you know."
Sasuke sighed heavily, thinking about what Natsu was saying. Natsu was right on that one. Erza seemed like a reasonable person despite her cold attitude. "Yeah, I got worried for nothing. Naruto sure exaggerate the situation too much," he agreed, trying to convince himself that there was nothing to worry about, despite the uneasiness that was rooting in his stomach.
With that settled, they went to the rooftop for their lunch where the others were already waiting for them.
Just as they disappeared around the corner, a certain scarlet haired beauty stopped in front of the board and inwardly cursed seeing who she got partnered with.
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"Everyone, this is Sasuke Uchiha," Naruto introduced once they sat on the rooftop, facing each other in circle.
"Sasuke, this is Gray, Lucy, Juvia" he pointed towards the respective owner of the name. "And I invited Gajeel along since we got partnered together."
"Why thank you, Naruto. I feel so special already," Gajeel sarcastically said.
Everyone greeted each other and Sasuke noticed that everyone present was actually his classmate. "Hello everyone. Nice to meet you all," he greeted with a small upturned of his lips. He noticed the two girls, Juvia and Lucy, were blushing madly at the introduction. He was thankful that the two didn't act like any of his fangirl out there, squealing and giggling every time he was around.
"So Sasuke, I wonder why you moved here from Konoha High? It is a prestigious high school and it is easier to manage your career there. So why the move?" The blonde girl, Lucy asked with a small voice. The curiosity was genuine on her face.
"Well," he started, opting to indulge them with the facts. "I want to take a break from my modeling career among other reason. So I told my manager, no modeling for a year and he agreed to it since I never took a break before," he told them. "Besides, I never like it there. Konoha High is full of a bunch of snobby rich bastard, not to mention the fangirls there are way much crazier than here," he said while the others nodded in understanding.
"I wonder how you can stand the ever present fangirls of yours," Gray commented in good humor, snickering at his misfortune.
"I don't," Sasuke replied with a smirk on his face.
He saw Lucy chuckled at that before her concentration turned to Natsu.
"By the way Natsu, when will you be free? I want to finish the assignment as soon as possible," Lucy asked the pink haired boy.
"I don't mind doing it after school," Natsu replied with a shrug, already stuffing his mouth with rice.
"Or we can meet up somewhere this weekend," Lucy suggested with vigor. "In fact we all can gather together to finish the assignment. It's going to be fun."
"Good idea since Naruto is partnered with Gajeel and Juvia is with Gray here," Natsu agreed at the idea.
"By the way, Sasuke. Who is your partner?" Juvia who silently observed their interaction asked for the first time.
Sasuke turned to the quite girl. "It's the student council president," he said, dejected.
Everybody stiffened at hearing that. It was to be expected.
"Well, I guess the weekend idea just fly through the window," Gajeel stated.
"It's not like I can't join you guys for the discussion."
"I guess you're right," Naruto agreed. But Sasuke couldn't help but notice the pity look sent his way. The vibe they were giving him felt as if he was going for a death sentence.
"Would you stop giving me those look. What a crap!" Sasuke scolded rolling his eyes at their antic.
Everybody relaxed their tense after that but Lucy was the first one that spoke. "You're right, sorry for making you uncomfortable," she apologized.
Sasuke just shrugged it off. He saw that Lucy had a conflicted look on her face as she was thinking deeply. Then she turned to him with a determined face. "I want you to know that Erza is not that bad. She's actually a kind hearted girl. Once you get to know her, she will warm up to you and take care of you," Lucy muttered, in a slightly defending tone. "Actually, those who has the chance to stand close to her is a lucky person," she finished sadly with a faraway look on her face.
"Yeah. I forgot that you are her cousin, Lucy," Juvia said remembering the fact.
"Actually, there is something that's been nagging in my mind for quite some time now," Gajeel spoke, making all the attention turned to him. "What happen to Erza? I remember she was quite close to you guys back then," he said motioning towards Gray, Natsu, Lucy and Naruto. "But now, she no longer has lunch with you guys and you guys no longer talk to each other unless it was school related. It was just confusing."
Oh this is some interesting story, Sasuke thought.
"I wish I have the answer to that," Natsu said sadly.
"You didn't know anything about this Lucy? She did live with you guys after her parents died right?"
Sasuke noticed that Lucy look away guiltily. "She did but only for a year. She moved out after that and I don't know where she went."
"You guys never try to find out?" Sasuke asked aloud.
"We did try following her after school but she found out once and let me tell you, the end result was not pretty," Gray said. While Natsu and Naruto shivered in fear remembering the catastrophic day.
"After that, no one dares to follow her again," Natsu said. Everyone fell to silence after that, each with their own thoughts, pondering on the reason behind the student council president abrupt change.
Sasuke observed everybody silently. Everyone was deep in thoughts. The little tidbits from everyone regarding Erza Scarlet just intrigued him more about the red haired girl. Not to mention that Lucy acted suspiciously when asked about Erza. Apparently they were cousins. It was impossible for her to not know anything about this. He needed to confront the blonde about this later.
Just then, Sasuke noticed that he was taking this much too seriously. Why did he care so much about a girl that he didn't even know? Was it because of the need to satisfy his curiosity? Was it because he was bored when modeling was out of the picture for a while? Or was it because he was curious about her?
It could be all of the above, he pondered.
"Hey, lunch time is almost over. We should head back to class," Juvia spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence.
They were walking back to the class when they saw Erza walking towards them in the opposite direction with a stoic look on her face.
She stopped short when she was near them. Her focus was solely on the younger Uchiha.
"Sasuke Uchiha," she started. "We are partnered together for the History assignment," she stated.
"Yeah I noticed that," Sasuke replied in a bored tone when an idea struck him. "Well these guys planned to gather together this weekend somewhere to finish the assignment. How about we joined them?" He asked casually.
He noticed that everyone around them paled instantly. They never knew that he had it in him to ask the demon president as they dubbed it, for an outing.
"Oi Sasuke," Naruto whispered to him, trying to warn him and prevent him from an impending death.
"I'm sorry. But I prefer to finish the assignment as soon as possible," Erza answered professionally. "And on a school ground," she stressed out with an intent glare sent his way.
Sasuke sweat dropped at that. She really was something. If look could kill, he would be dead right now. She made him a little nervous but it was not shown on his face. He would not lose to her. His pride and ego would not let him.
What losing had anything to do with this? It was not even a competition in the first place, his conscience told him.
"Tch. Whatever," he said, looking away from her. The twitch on the corner of her left eye did not go unnoticed by him. Inwardly, he was smirking for succeeding in annoying her.
"Then, meet me at the student council meeting room after school today," she said, before she walked away from the group to the classroom.
Sasuke watched as the enraged girl walked away from him until she disappeared into the classroom.
"Ow!" He yelled when a hard slap was delivered to the back of his head. "What was that for, idiot?" He glared at Naruto while massaging his abused head.
"What the hell was that back then? Do you have a death wish or something?" Naruto questioned with his hands on his hip.
"What's wrong with asking her to join us?" He asked. "It's not like she will accept the offer anyway," he added with a sigh before he too walked towards the classroom.
Naruto, Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Lucy and Gajeel stood there in shock. Was that a hint of disappointment in his voice just now?
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"Sasuke, are you sure about this?" Natsu asked for the umpteenth time since the last period ended 10 minutes ago.
"Yes Natsu. You and Naruto don't have to go with me to the student council meeting room and you certainly don't have to wait for me," he said as he slammed the door of his locker shut with a force. "And stop asking me the same questions again!" He grumbled exasperatedly. He knew that the twins' intentions were good but they were driving him crazy with the non-stop question.
"Alright. Alright," Naruto held up his hand in surrender. "We'll go home first."
"Text us later okay," Natsu demanded.
Sasuke nodded in return and the twins walked away, leaving Sasuke alone at the locker room.
With a heavy sigh, Sasuke find his way to the student council meeting room for the academic discussion with his partner.
Five minutes later, Sasuke found himself standing in front of the meeting room. He knocked three times on the door and heard the invitation to come in. He opened the door and saw Erza sitting at the oval table in the middle of the room. Various books were strewn all over the table while she intently read an opened book in front of her. Sasuke closed the door and neared her.
"You already started?" He asked intending to make a small talk as he sat opposite her.
"Yes. You were late so I thought I'll make a head start so as to not waste any time," she answered without taking her eyes off the pages.
Sasuke wondered when she took the time to borrow the book from the library, but kept the question to himself. "Hn. So how are we going to go about this?"
Finally, Erza raised her eyes to glance at him briefly. "I guess it will be easier and faster if we gather the information about the topic first and compile them later," she suggested.
"That's fine with me," Sasuke answered curtly with a nod.
"I already gather different books on the matter, to save time for the trips to library. You can read through them for information," she said as she pushed a pile of books to his side.
"You're not thinking of finishing all these books today, right?" He inquired while gesturing towards the pile of books on the table.
"Actually yes," she answered with a blank face. "If you have somewhere to be, then you can leave early. I can finish it up by myself," she said before she buried her nose back into the book.
"What's the point in being partner then?" He muttered sarcastically.
"Look, I'm trying to be considerate here. It's up to you whether you take it or not," Erza countered with a glare, a little offended by his little comment.
"Geez, there's no need to be so riled up about it. You need to chill out a bit," he said.
"Hmph!" Erza rolled her eyes at him and returned to her book.
Hn. That's cute, Sasuke silently mused. He opened his book and began extracting necessary information for their assignment. They worked in silence and once in a while Sasuke's eyes wandered to the girl in front of him only to see her completely focused on the material before she scribbled the information in her notebook. Sometimes she was frowning cutely and then she would put her chin on her right palm, lost in her thought before she would opened another book and browsed through it in concentration.
So far, everything was going smoothly. This was the first time in his life that he could do his group related work in peace. There was no problem at all working with the red head. They work in silence and Sasuke really appreciate it. It was nice and he liked it.
"Oh, it's already 4.30pm," Erza suddenly muttered, looking at the clock.
"You have somewhere to be?" Sasuke asked frowning.
Erza looked up to him. "No, it's just that it's going to be raining soon," she supplied before she gazed wistfully outside the window.
Sasuke followed her gaze and noticed that it was dark outside.
"I guess it can't be helped then. We should stop here and go home soon or we'll get stuck in the rain," she said with a dejected sigh. "Shame we can't finish all these book today."
"Why are you such in a hurry? We have until next week to do this assignment you know."
Sasuke gathered his notes and placed it in his bag.
"It's not wise to do the work in the last minute," she answered with a sharp glare to him. Well, the silver lining in being partnered with her was, he definitely was going to hand his assignment on time this time. With the added bonus of the absence of admiring stare, unneeded conversation and other things that girls usually tried when being partnered with him. Hell, one girl even tried to seduce him once and it was not a pleasant experience especially when he hates the girl in question with all his might.
"You can go first, I'm going to place this book on the shelf," Erza said.
"Why bother when we're going to mess it again tomorrow?"
"Council meeting tomorrow morning," she answered curtly, before she got up and gathered some books in her arms to be placed in the shelf.
Not sensing any more explanation from the girl, Sasuke too got up from his seat and helped her with the book. He gathered the books in one arm and saw that the red haired beauty stood on her toes, struggling to place the book on the upper shelf with her right hand while balancing the other books in her left arm.
She's too proud to ask for help, Sasuke thought with a sigh while nearing her. He stood behind her back and took the book from her hand, placing it properly on the shelf. Erza whipped around and Sasuke suddenly found himself face to face with her. He could see the shock written on her face. She probably thought he left already.
Sasuke didn't know what came over him. He should move away from her as he was trapping her with his body but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the chocolate brown eyes and they were so close he could smell the sweet strawberry scent coming from her hair. He wondered if she tasted like one too.
His eyes widen at his thought. He didn't know what was wrong with him when it came to the red haired beauty.
"What are you doing? I thought I said you could leave?" Erza frowned at him. "And would you step aside please? You're intruding my personal space," she shook her head at his behavior and turned her back to resume placing the book on the shelf.
Sasuke sighed in relief. He was lucky Erza didn't catch on to his weird behavior just now. She was quite oblivious for a smart girl.
"I'm helping you of course, you're tall but you're not tall enough to place these books on the upper shelf without any help," he stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What did you say?" She growled dangerously.
Sasuke rolled his eyes at her behavior. "Let's not fight okay. The sooner we sort this out, the sooner we can go home," he said, taking the second book from her hand and placed it on the shelf.
To his credit, Erza sighed and complied with him since he was right. In the end she gathered the books from the table and brought them to him so that he could sort it on the shelf.
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Naruto laid on his king sized bed, throwing the bouncy black ball repeatedly to the ceiling before catching it in his hand. It was hypnotic, and it also kept his mind from thinking about his raven haired best friend who was still probably at school with Erza, doing their assignment.
The image of Sasuke, bloodied and broken entered his mind and he suppressed the spontaneous chill that ran down his spine at the mere thought. He was worried for Sasuke but he also couldn't help the weird feeling that settled in his heart as he imagined the two of them together at the school ground. A frown etched on his face at that. He didn't know why he felt this way. He blamed it on his worry towards his best friend.
"Why the long face?"
Naruto was startled at the sudden voice in the room. He forgot for a moment that he was not alone.
Naruto looked to his left and saw his pink haired brother, sitting at his desk, his attention glued to the laptop screen in front of him while his fingers were tapping furiously on the keyboard. Natsu was probably facebooking with his other friends.
"What do you mean?" Naruto inquired.
Natsu stopped writing and glanced at him. "Dude, you're frowning and you look troubled," Natsu pointed. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," Naruto denied. "You're delusional, too much time on the computer will do that to you," he teased Natsu.
Natsu scoffed at his remark. "Yeah right. I'm your twin remember," he said as if that explained everything.
"Your point is?" Naruto asked dumbfounded. And he saw Natsu's eyes twinkled in a way that troubled him.
"You can't hide things from me Naruto. It's the twin power. I will always know what you're feeling because we are twin," he said excitedly. "Twins have this deep connection spiritually-"
"Okay Natsu stop," Naruto cut Natsu's words mid sentence before he would babble further about the connection crap.
Natsu sniggered at that. "Okay, putting the twin power aside, what's bothering you?"
Naruto sighed. In a way, Natsu was right, they always knew what the others were feeling. Sometimes, it was a good thing but the other time, it was such a pain in the ass.
"Nothing major," he opted to say. "Just worried about Sasuke, he's not picking up his phone."
Natsu rolled his eyes at him. "Don't worry about him. I doubt that Erza will actually murder him even when it comes to worst case scenario."
"Well Sasuke can be such an ass sometimes, you know how short tempered Erza is," Naruto pointed out which earned him a snigger from the pink haired.
Just then, a loud ring was heard from the bed. Naruto quickly grabbed his phone and saw the new message sent by Sasuke. He opened the message and read the content.
"Sasuke texts. He said he just finishes the meeting with Erza and he is heading straight home. He will call us later," Naruto informed his brother.
"See, I told you not to worry," Natsu replied, his attention back to the laptop in front of him.
"Yeah you're right," Naruto said in a lighter mood. He got off from the bed and stretched out a little. "I'm getting some drinks and snacks from the kitchen, you want something?" He inquired.
"Nah, I'm good," Natsu said without taking his eyes off the monitor.
Naruto just shrugged, but just as he turned around and walked away from his occupied brother, Natsu turned to look at his retreating figure with a frown on his face.
A/N: So that's it for now. I hope you guys enjoy and thank you for reading.
Now I have to ask you guys, who do you prefer for Naruto to be paired with? Because I have someone in mind originally, but more than three readers disagree with my choice of partner for Naruto. So if you don't mind, can you suggest who you prefer Naruto to be with?
Thank you. Ta-ta for now.