A/N: How has everyone been? I hope everyone's been doing really well! Finally have a short break after the hectic madness that has been going on so I give you this chapter! It's a bit short but hopefully you guys will like it. Olie out! :D

*DISCLAIMER APPLIES*

BEFORE THE WORST

After The Beep

Found within a particular elegant and noble-looking house were two teenagers currently keeping themselves busy with their subject course. The sixteen-year-old Uchiha Sasuke had decided to move back into his old home a couple of weeks back. Consequently, he also decided to hold his and his girlfriend's tutorial sessions in the classy abode. Why? Well, when the library turned out to be a real bust (Naruto was too distracted ever since she realized that games were being lent out at the public library. Sasuke, on the other hand, had problems with the school lib ... fangirls), he decided to teach Naruto in her home or maybe at Kakashi's place. Sorry to say that that plan also proved futile. Apparently, Jiraiya and Kakashi respectively were keen on disrupting their study time (to which, Naruto was always thankful for). So Sasuke, who'd managed to convince Kakashi that he wanted his privacy and that he was fully capable of managing the Uchiha house, resolved the affair by moving their activities to his original residence.

Everyone and their grandmother knew that Uzumaki Naruto was not good in academics. Ever since kindergarten, the fifteen-year-old blonde always had a difficult time with school. However great the extent her shortcomings in school were, she definitely made up for in terms of passion. Although sometimes, passion didn't translate Ds to As in some institutions. She wasn't stupid or anything; just incredibly... unfocussed. And maybe a bit slow.

"What the hell?! Why are there so many flipping letters?! This is math for fuck's sake! And you keep saying pie! Even Mr. Asuma was saying pie in class! What the hell does pie have anything to do with god damn math?!" Not even thirty minutes in her tutorial, she had already become frustrated and proceeded to slam her forehead on her desk. Maybe if she played dead then Sasuke would let up and stop teaching her.

"We already learned this last year, knucklehead! Pi – P.I. - is not pie! How the hell did you pass math last year if you don't even know what pi is?!" Sasuke pressed an enclosed fist atop Naruto's head and gave her a noogie.

"How the hell should I know?! I just answered C for all the questions I didn't understand!" For some odd reason that Sasuke couldn't comprehend, Naruto had the ability to make miracles happen. He recalled her saying something about her bouts of guessing last school year. From what he could remember, she had answered C for at least twenty-five percent of their math exam. Naruto was one lucky brat, he could tell you that much; but from Sasuke's perspective, leaving everything to chance was not the way to go. The boy wanted guaranteed success, and he'd be damned if he let Naruto fail and fall behind in class.

Sasuke poked her cheek with the dull end of a pencil to get her mind back to the present. "Hey. Blockhead. Let's keep going. We're far from finished." His statement only earned him a groan that sounded awfully like a dying animal. "Sasukeeeee. Stoooop. You're killing me here." She turned and rested the side of her head on the table so she could shoot a very miserable expression toward Sasuke.

The boy snorted. "Don't be such a brat, brat."

And just then, as if the gods were on her side once more, Sasuke's landline rang just before Naruto could resign herself to more word problems.

Ring-Ring

"Aren't you gonna answer that?" Naruto stalled as she pretended to write equations on a piece of paper.

"No."

Ring-Ring

"Could be important, bastard."

"... I doubt it."

Ring-Ring

"You sure you wanna take a chance?"

"Fairly sure, lug nut."

Ring-Ri—

Nothing in this world had given Naruto such a great extent of sadness as when the phone stopped ringing, with the caller being sent straight to the answering machine. So much for stalling...

"Uchiha residence. Leave a message."

. . .

What the hell?

"Hey! It's Sakura! You weren't on your phone so..."

"Naruto, keep answerin—"

"What the hell kind of boring ass old man message was that?!"

Sigh. Clearly, Naruto had found the perfect distraction. It was best for Sasuke to just give up and continue the lesson when she could actually concentrate.

"What? It's a perfectly normal voicemail message." Sasuke massaged his left temple using the same pencil he had poked Naruto with earlier.

"Yeah! If you're sixty and wrinkly!" She stood up from her seat with renewed vigour and a clear conviction in her eyes. Another sigh from Sasuke came. If only Naruto exhibited the same energy for academics, but he supposed that was asking for too much. "I've decided to dedicate this wonderful Saturday to improve your voicemail message so you don't sound like a man stuck in a seniors' home!" Naruto proclaimed to the heavens.

Sasuke mentally shook his head. Yup. Tutorials were definitely cancelled.

Moments later, the two teens were seated comfortably on Sasuke's lavish bed with his phone system and his cellphone in between them. Naruto figured that if the message in the house phone was drab, then Sasuke's cellphone message would be equally as drab. So far, Naruto had been explaining to him that the message should sound lighthearted and happy. No one wanted to hear a sourpuss on the other end of the line. Apparently it was also preferable that one should apologize for not being able to pick up the phone. Frankly, Sasuke couldn't understand what all the hype was about. It was a god damn message to tell people to leave a message. Why would anyone want to complicate something so painfully straight to the point.

"Okay S'uke. Say this: Hi! This is Sasuke! Sorry I couldn't answer your call. Just leave a message and I promise to call back A.S.A.P! Have a nice day!" The sickly sweet voice Naruto just made had Sasuke visibly cringing. She was expecting him to sound like... well... like a blonde.

"How 'bout I just kick your ass, stupid." He glared heatedly. Although he said words with such fervour, he immediately regretted his decision when he felt the room temperature suddenly drop.

Naruto looked quite grim yet there remained an odd menacing grin on her face. Sasuke didn't know if the hell fire that provided Naruto's background was from his imagination. "How 'bout I stab you repeatedly with a spoon?" She said while calmly cracking her knuckles.

And so presently we find Uchiha Sasuke submissively uttering similar lines that were given to him by his ever-loving sweetheart.

"Hi... This is Sasuke... Sorry I couldn't answer your call... Leave a message and I'll call back."

Now that just sounded depressing. Even to Sasuke.

"Give more life into it, bastard! You sound dead! Your original message sounded better that this. At least the first one sounded like an old man. This sounds like a corpse was brought back to life and was forced to do your message for you!"

So Sasuke tried again.

"More animated, Sasuke!"

and again.

"I could practically hear you glaring in that one. Do it again!"

and again.

"Really?"

and again.

" Where's your Uchiha charm when you need it?"

Several several minutes later...

" This is Sasuke. Hn."

The subsequent 'beep' that came after the message seemed quite mocking in Naruto's opinion. The girl didn't even have the energy to grumble and gripe about the matter anymore. She lay sprawling on Sasuke's bed while the other teen sat haphazardly on his pillows. Both teens were obviously annoyed by this point.

Seconds flew by with none of them uttering a single sound. Exhaustion had finally taken its toll.

"..."

"..."

"So, Sunny, you really want to push this?"

Another handful of seconds of silence passed before Naruto thought herself relatively calm to answer. "Fuck this. I'm doing your god damn message for you." To which Sasuke smirked with satisfaction.

Naruto hardly broke a sweat to make up a socially acceptable message.

Once the chore had finally been surpassed, Naruto only wished to forget about the highly stressful course of the day and resumed answering her math problem sets. Wow. The whole answering machine business must have totally bummed her out for her to get back into her studies, Sasuke presumed.

A couple of hours later, Naruto and Sasuke finally finished all their subject matters. The blonde quickly leapt out of her seat and began stretching her muscle kinks away, leaving Sasuke to clear up the desk.

"God. I thought we'd never finish!" She exclaimed giving one final stretch to her back. Sasuke, after deeming his desk spotless, came up to her and kissed her on the cheek. "God job on finishing the work though, loser." He had said before fetching his jacket.

Upon seeing Sasuke wearing the high-end jacket, Naruto began to tilt her head in confusion. "You going somewhere, Sasuke?"

At the sound of the jacket zipper closing, the girl got her answer. "Come on. We're going for ramen." The last word evidently surfaced clear bliss on Naruto's features. She was about to open her mouth to say the inevitable words but Sasuke beat her to it. "My treat." He smirked then nodded to the door so they could leave.

" Gah! I could just marry you!" She practically skipped to the door. " Let's go, Sasu-cakes!" Naruto yelled as she noisily ran down the stairs with the thunderous thump-thump-thumping of her feet reverberating down the immaculate halls.

"Hn." Sasuke lightly chuckled before silently following after his best friend.

Soon after the slam of the front door was heard, the phone on Sasuke's well-organized desk began to ring. Unfortunately, the caller had just missed the Uchiha teen by just mere moments. However, it couldn't be considered complete misfortune, because the caller was lucky enough to be the first person to hear the new and improved voicemail message.

"Hey! Naruto here! Sasuke can't answer right now! The bastard's probably doing something boring or maybe even brooding. It's just like him to be a complete drab. His old message was so boring that it would make seniors' bingo look like an extreme sport! Couldn't even make a decent one so I had to step in and make this totally awesome new message!"

"Idiot! Stop insulting me on my own god damn mes—"

"Anyway! Even if this guy is so uninteresting, he's a total sweetheart and I love love looooove 'im to bits! That's why he's gonna call you back as soon as he can, right Sasuke?"

"Hn."

"Message after the beep! Oh, and Sasuke thinks Naruto is the bestest greatest person in th—"

"Shut up, dumba—!"

BEEEEEP.

On the other end of the line, Sakura chuckled at the message. "She's right, Sasuke. This message is way better. Keep it."

After she'd said what she'd called to say, the pinkette hung up and then thought back to Sasuke's new voicemail. Another set of giggles fell upon her.

She really did hope Sasuke would keep the message.