A/N: Grades are out and I'm actually very pleased with what I got. Go me! Didn't get to successfully list myself in all my classes for the next term so I still got that to worry about but whatever. I'm on vacation, beeeeeeetch. Finally finished this and posting it! Hooray! Thank you very much for your patience, everyone-san! :D
To mastercurrytail: I'm super happy to hear that! (bows head) Thank you! Hopefully the next chapters are up to expectation. (motivation)
To alesfan: I gave myself so much feels writing the last chapter out. It kind of looked stupid that I was making gripe-y faces all over my laptop screen. My dad probably saw the whole thing happening. Haha! I give you this winky face (;D) as a response to all your questions. Ahehehe. Also thanks for wishing me luck on my finals! I did very well the last term so yay! I hope to keep you excited for the chapters to come.
To SweetHunniiBunnii: Thank you! Next chapter right here and ready to be read! :D
Hope everyone enjoys this one! Let me know what y'all think about it and whatnot. :D
*DISCLAIMER APPLIES* any mention of and/or similarities to intellectual property of any sort was not used for monetary gain and was used solely for the purpose of entertainment
BEFORE THE WORST
Socializing For Idiots
Having a new kid in school drew in the kids like bees to a garden full of flowers. Word spreads fast, and in a matter of mere seconds, everyone in your class knew of your life's littlest details. From your previous school to family matters, from sexual preferences to kinks; apparently even your drug addiction that you don't even recall ever having. That was circulating in school too.
He'd hardly said anything or talked to anyone since he'd set foot on campus, but somehow his secret profession as a pimp was already being divulged across the halls.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
Goes to show how kids have the wildest imagination.
The deafening whispers seemed to grow louder and louder by the second; very much akin to the said bees buzz-buzz-buzzing around a single prey; a singular flower amongst predators. How queer how he'd just referred to himself as a flower...
The sound of the bell, thankfully enough, had the kids scurrying into their classes. Soon, the halls were eerily quiet as if the loud hums of rumours hadn't plagued the expanse of space.
He sighed.
He always did prefer the silence more; which was why he really didn't appreciate large crowds that didn't know how to mind their own business. But this was life, and as life dictated he would have to interact with these kids to survive; which was why he read all those 'Socializing for Idiots' books. Hopefully, he'd be able to make friends! The boy smiled by himself in a most plastic way. Like it was forced and lacked any sort of warmth.
Just when he was about to return his focus to finding his room, someone passed him in a rush and subsequently hit him on the arm with her backpack.
"Sorry! My bad!" A girl with bright yellow hair yelled her apology but was not able to look back and make eye contact.
"No worries!" Oh goody. He was making friends already.
The girl hurriedly opened a door way down the hall and went inside the room. The slam of a door being shut echoed down the walkway and most especially inside the door's classroom.
"Whoops." Maybe she should have gone for a more inconspicuous entrance? If she had then maybe their homeroom teacher, Ms. Kurenai, wouldn't be sporting quite a stern look. "Sorry, Ms. K." She sheepishly apologized while rubbing the back of her head as she would often do when she was in a clumsy situation.
The elegant-looking woman merely sighed, what with being used to the blonde sophomore antics by this point. Kakashi did warn her about the girl's unpredictability and brashness. It wasn't like it was totally a bad thing. It made her once dull teaching days much more interesting. No doubt about that.
"Just take your seat, Naruto."
"Can do, Ms. K."
When Naruto finally had herself seated, Kurenai resumed her message prior to being disrupted. "As I was saying, today we will be having a new student. Come to think of it, he's pretty late. He should be here by now." She glanced at her wristwatch in mild worry. "He might have gotten lost. Sakura, could you check the hallways?"
There was no need to, however. Because soon after Kurenai made her request, there came a knock on the door and sequentially being opened.
"Ahh. You must be Mr. Baikan."
All eyes were on the person standing in front of the opened door. This was the person everyone had been talking about nonstop all morning. The newcomer was showing that disgruntling smile of his as he regarded the homeroom teacher. He had the palest skin rivalling a certain Uchiha. He also had tresses as dark the midnight sky; again, similar to a certain Uchiha. And then the new kid dropped his smile and opened his eyes to reveal equally as dark irises. Now who did that remind the class of? Oh yeah! A certain Uchiha! In fact, now that the class fully regarded the boy's physical features, all the student came to a singular conclusion...
"He kind of looks like Sasuke, doesn't he?"
Only one student succeeded to voice out the thought that crossed everyone's minds and the person to do so was Sakura.
Then again, the idea wasn't as universal as everyone had thought because two students reacted negatively to the statement. There was a low growl coming from somewhere in the room and there was also a loud uncomprehending wail coming from another part of the room.
"No way! Sasuke is way cooler than that guy!" The reaction earned Naruto a series of muted chuckling from the class. Sakura ended up giggling the most out of everybody, silently agreeing with the blonde that Sasuke was in fact much cooler than their new classmate.
"Idiot." An insult that could only come from the one, the only Uchiha Sasuke
The new student looked at the girl who'd outright publicly stated the unsolicited opinion and quickly recognized her as the girl who'd bumped him down the hallway. Now that he had a clear view of her features, he could say that he liked what he saw; most especially now as the girl was fiercely blushing at what she'd just said out loud.
"Err—I meant to say Sasuke's better. Ah! Wait! No! ... Ugh! I'll just shut up now." She sunk in her seat and covered her face with her palm in the hopes that the embarrassment would go away. It however did not as the class erupted into a communal bout of laughing once again.
Kurenai, after having herself a nice round of laughter, cleared her throat and began to take hold of the class. "Settle down now, everyone." She mirthfully asked for order in the classroom which the students followed obediently. "Mr. Baikan, my name is Ms. Yuuhi Kurenai and I will be your homeroom teacher for the year. Please do introduce yourself to the class and tell us a little something about yourself." She gestured for the boy to take the floor. The boy obliged and took his stance front and centre of the class.
"My name is Baikan Sai. This is the first time I am entering mainstream educational system as I've been homeschooled all my life. I'm very enthusiastic about art. I like to paint. I look forward to making everyone's acquaintance."
Kurenai welcomed Sai and directed him to the open seat. "Please take your seat at the leftmost corner spot, next to Sasuke." Sasuke glared at Sai which the latter combated with a falsified grin. To Sasuke's surprise, their little staring battle was brief because Sai suddenly fixed his phony expression elsewhere.
Sasuke followed the boy's line of sight and scowled when he put two and two together.
Sasuke regarded him in a most hateful manner. No way. That wanker wouldn't dare!
"Ms. Kurenai, if it's not too much trouble, I would really like to be able to sit next to that cute blond girl over there." Sai, unaware of the grave he was burying for himself, pointed towards Uzumaki Naruto.
"Huh?" Clueless as ever, Naruto tilted her head cutely at the request.
"I'm sorry, Sai, but I like to keep my seating arrangements permanent for each term. It makes attendance easier for me, you see. I'll consider it next time or maybe you can try in your other classes if you have a similar subject with her."
"I understand." The new kid nodded before going to the back of the room to take his place.
When Sasuke's intense and hateful onyx eyes met with the equally dark irises of Baikan Sai, the latter became sure that his first year in school would be very much interesting.
llllllllllllllllllll
"Don't forget to have your parents or guardian sign the letter I handed out, guys! I need it for the field trip. Also, we have to start planning for the School Fair! I want a list of proposals soon!" Kurenai attempted to get her announcements across to the students before they were dismissed. It was a shame that it was almost futile as everyone started to pack up and/or congregate amongst friends before leaving the class.
Naruto was just getting ready to leave when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She regarded the person with mild surprise once she realized that it was the new kid.
"What's your name? I'm Sai." He personally introduced himself and placed his hand out for a handshake.
"Uhh. Yeah. Hey. I'm Naruto. Pleased to meet you." Naruto furrowed her brows out of perplexity. Weird. No one never really cared to introduce themselves to her. Normally it was the other way around. She'd always had to initiate the introduction just to get to know someone; the exemption being Sasuke and just now this guy.
"You're really cute, Naruto." The statement had Naruto madly blushing. It would seem that those self-help socializing books had worked wonders judging from Naruto's reaction. "... your flat chest totally compliments your built. It's the perfect size and shape for your relatively uncurvy body."
...
Did he?
Naruto bristled and clenched her hands. "What did you just..?"
Before she could kill the perverted bastard, Sasuke distanced her from the new student. The Uchiha simultaneously growled at Sai to get the point across that Naruto was off-limits.
"You'll be late for class, loser. Get out of here." With effectively shoving her to the direction of the door, Sasuke successfully created the barrier needed to stop that psycho from attempting to hit on Naruto. As Naruto felt a storm brewing, she agreeably followed her boyfriend's directions and left the room. There were a few mumbled curses from her but at least she didn't make that big of a fuss. Once the girl was gone, Sasuke shot the boy one of the fiercest glares he could conjure; yet, oddly enough, the creep still kept that damn grin on his face.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Sai. And who might you be?" Sai extended his hand to initiate a friendly handshake between gentlemen. That's what his book said and the tips in there seemed to have been working so far.
"Don't talk to me. And more importantly, don't talk to Naruto. Got that."
Or maybe his book was just a collection of piece of shit lies on paper. Who knew? Most certainly not Sai, that was for sure; because the hostility the young Uchiha gave him only served to motivate him even more. He believed he was engaging in Playful Banter as was the topic on Chapter 4.
"I don't have to take orders from a hardass such as yourself." Sai helpfully added. Playful banter required some amount of friendly teasing such as name-calling and whatnot. Boy! Was Sai on a roll! At this rate, he'd be the most sought after boy in school.
"What did you say to me?" Sasuke moved to grab at Sai's collar. Only one – one – personhad the privilege to sass Sasuke like that. Anyone else who dared to do it was in serious risk of a thorough beating. The Uchiha was ready to show no mercy but thankfully he was intercepted by the homeroom teacher. She tightly gripped at one of Sasuke's wrists and stared him down.
"Break it up. I will not tolerate roughhousing in my homeroom class! Especially from you Mr. Uchiha." Kurenai reproachfully frowned at the Uchiha before aiming the same expression to the new addition to her class. "You too Mr. Baikan. You may be new here but let me assure you that that will not garner you any sort of special treatment. Do I make myself clear?" She refixed her gaze back to Sasuke , suggesting that the question was addressed to the both of them.
"Yes, Ms. Kurenai." Sai bowed his head apologetically at the female teacher.
Kurenai acknowledged Sai's response. When she heard none from the other teen in question, she decided to further establish her dominance as an authority figure. "Sasuke." She said the name as firm as she could.
"Tch. Yeah. Whatever." Sasuke turned his head away and pulled his wrist away from the strict teacher. With a final glare at the annoying conundrum that was Sai (to which Sai returned the gesture with a smirk), Sasuke went out the classroom in order to get to his next class. Although thoroughly disappointed that he was not able to put a hurting on that Sai character, he was fairly sure that the student body would gladly do the job for him. He was freaking Uchiha Sasuke. His every move was closely monitored by every student in the school. If he wasn't able to get to Sai, the school would undoubtedly exact the revenge for him; the first to do so would certainly be his annoying-but-proved-to-be-useful-sometimes fangirls.
When the sound of something crashing and a subsequent groan from behind tickled Sasuke's ears, he was powerless to stop the grin that made its way to his features.
Boy, those girls worked fast!
The day was already looking up for him.
llllllllllllllllllll
That was the twenty-ninth time – TWENTY-NINTH TIME – someone had shoved him against a locker. He couldn't understand what he was doing wrong. The day started out nicely enough but then things took a turn for the worst after homeroom. It was so odd. Maybe he could try making a new friend one more time.
He approached a group of girls confidently with his signature expression. "Hello. My name is Sai. I'm new here and I was wondering –"
Crash!
Make that thirtieth time.
"Come on girls. We don't socialize with people who cause trouble, especially those who cause Sasuke trouble." The girl Sai attempted to introduce himself to rolled her eyes and shepherded her companions away. A round of muffled laughter ensued from the students who witnessed the event.
Sai slid down the lockers and settled for comfortably sitting on the linoleum floor. He sighed at the information that was blessed upon him. It was reassuring to find out that the reason for the random assaults were not because of his lousy socializing skills or the circulating rumours but rather the exchange he had with his hardass classmate.
"It's lunch break. Cafeteria is that way just so you know."
He looked up and was pleasantly surprised to see Naruto offering her hand for him to stand up from his spot on the floor. Murmurs from the surrounding student body began to buzz across the immediate vicinity. Naruto was helping out the weird troublemaking new kid, the same new kid that was hassling Uchiha Sasuke – Naruto's infamous best friend and boyfriend – just that morning.
Sai gratefully took the offered help and was soon standing poised in front of Uzumaki Naruto. There was a look of sympathy on the girl's face. One that said she knew what the other was going through. Being picked on was fun for those initiating the act but never for the victim's of such deeds. Sai was in need of a friend and Naruto was just the person to welcome him as such.
"You alright? That looked like it hurt." Naruto swiftly checked for any bruises or scratch that may have formed on Sai's body. "Don't mind those girls. They're just a bunch of losers that need a good beating or two."
Sai felt a swell in his chest as the words of comfort left Naruto's mouth. It was time to show her his gratitude. "Wow. You're nice too. Now I can definitely look past the fact that you have a flat chest."
A tick formed on Naruto's head. She was this close, this close, to shoving him to the locker, but she was better than that so she decided to pacify herself by mentally killing Sai in her head. Slowly. Yet Painfully. With a spoon.
Yup. She was feeling loads better.
"Damn pervert. Ugh. Whatever. I'm out." Naruto unenthusiastically waved her hand goodbye and went back to where she came from prior to seeing Sai.
"See you around, flat-chest!" He screamed adoringly at Naruto's retreating form. The blonde however, without turning back, responded with a quick flick of her middle finger. Her effort to appear nasty to Sai was proven ineffective as the boy already knew that the girl was good at heart and that the action lacked any form of malice.
The attacks on Sai did not lessen in frequency but his encounter with Naruto clearly gave him enough strength to get through the rest of the class hours. Students continued to shove, whisper behind his back, outright laugh at him and so on, but he stood tall and seemed unaffected. Yet people, no matter the degree of motivation, had their limits. He was cracking; chipping away as the day progressed, and even the brief talk with the apple of his eye wasn't enough to lift his spirits at the end of the day.
The pale boy sighed as he slumped over on his seat on the bleachers. He'd just attempted to talk to this one red-headed, glasses-wearing chick and he had been thoroughly verbally abused by her. Saying it was traumatizing was a complete understatement. Sai had been chewed, swallowed, regurgitated, mauled, rechewed, and reswallowed, in that exact order.
Naruto, who happened to be in the immediate vicinity, saw the whole thing and decided to offer comfort. God. Sometimes it sucked to be a nice person. "You know, you really shouldn't be insulting her and then get upset when she lashes out at you. Karin's already a bitch to begin with and calling her ugly would just be like adding ten litres of gasoline to an open fire."
"Tell me about it..."
This had Naruto curiously tilting her head. What? No jibe at her chest region? No awkward facial expressions? Nada? Zero? Zilp? Zich? In the very few instances she'd talked with Sai, she already established the usual responses she'd get from the boy in conversations. His most recent response was definitely not one of her expectations.
"Yo. What's bumming you out, kid?" She asked him. Not that she was concerned or anything... Maybe she just recognized the look of defeat when she saw it and decided it creeped her out more than Sai's fake ass smile.
Not one second after asking the question, she received an eyeful of the book Sai had been reading before entering high school.
"I don't get it. I follow every step in this book to a tee and here I am still equally as friendless as the moment I stepped on campus." He slumped further into his seat. "I don't know what else to do."
Naruto simultaneously groaned and rolled her eyes. "I'll show you what you should have done from the very beginning."
"What are yo-?"
The blonde didn't give the boy a chance to complete his question as she suddenly grabbed the book and harshly flung the offending thing across the athletic field.
"What gives, flat-chest?!" Sai bristled as he stood up from his spot and stared desperately at the tossed book. ...well, trampled book now. "Gah! What kind of girl throws like that! Are you secretly a man?!"
Psh. Like she hadn't heard that one before.
"Jesus! It's like you're a guy without a dick!"
Huh... That was actually new. A for originality.
"You some man-chick? Explains why you got a flat chest then."
"Alright! Enough with jokes!" Naruto slapped her own forehead due to complete exasperation. Her movement surprisingly caused Sai to chuckle at her reaction. At least the guy was feeling better. That counted as a victory in her books.
"Gotcha, dickless."
...?
He did not just rename her with a more embarrassing nickname.
"You did not just call me dickless, asshole!" Freaking hell! Suddenly 'flat-chest' didn't sound so bad anymore. She stood at full height with the still-trying-to-master Uchiha glare in tow. Although reaching only up until Sai's nose, her aura towered over the other easily.
"I'm not changing it." Sai was playing with fire. Before Naruto could murder the poor boy, the most unanticipated thing happened. Sai, the plastic psycho that he was, actually laughed. It wasn't an awkward, creeper-type, murderer expression of mirth he apparently always used but an actual honest to goodness grin. The sight made Naruto beam at the boy in return. When he wasn't trying so hard, Sai was actually a gosh darn decent person.
"Ditch the things you read in that book. Seriously. That thing is gonna get you killed one day. I guarantee it." Naruto turned around and crossed her arms across her chest. She nodded her head as if the gesture would more efficiently convince the boy in her presence.
"Really? And how else do you suggest I make friends here hmmm?" Sai quirked a manicured brow at the shorter teen.
Naruto looked back at him and haughtily smirked at the ebony-haired lad. "I just tossed your book across the freakin' field and got yourself a friend immediately after."
Sai squinted suspiciously at the girl. What the hell was she talking about? There wasn't anyone who - Ohhhhh. "You mean?" The look of elation was one Naruto had never seen before. It was... refreshing to say the least.
She shrugged and refocused her gaze away from Sai. "Just be yourself. Stop trying to please everyone with the methods in that book and go with what feels right for you. Eventually, you find the right kind of people. And, if you're lucky, the best kind of people, the ones you'd be glad to keep forever, find you." A soft breeze happened to pass by at that exact moment which infinitely increased Naruto's cool factor. Damn. She wished Sasuke could have seen her just then. Heh. He'd stop calling her loser if he had.
Tch. Stupid Sasuke. Never there when you need him.
Sai fondly looked at Naruto's smaller form. She was definitely something else; that was for sure. If he thought she was cute before, he was dead wrong. She was beautiful, inside and out; a true diamond in the rough. The thought of maybe getting in a relationship with Naruto definitely did not sound like an awful idea. In fact, it was a splendid idea. Now, he just discretely needed to find out if Naruto was taken. He audibly chuckled a few seconds after Naruto's monologue. "That was super cheesy. You're like a walking Hallmark card without a dick."
Naruto stiffened at the words. She wanted to murder this douche. So. Very. Bad.
"Fuck you, Sai."
"Hm? Wouldn't your boyfriend be jealous though, dickless?"
"Sai!"
"So you do have a boyfriend?"
"SAIIIII!"