I've decided, on close study of this story, that parts of it no longer make sense even to me. Therefore, in the interests of my sanity, I have come to the decision that the education system in this world is now of my own creation. I will be going back to change certain things in the other chapters.
The truth is, and you would know this if you've ever been to my page, that I am Australian. Trying to direct this story on an American education basis was possibly the worst mistake I have ever made in the history of my fanfiction-writing stretch.
Thanks goes to Tasogare-no-Raikou, though, for giving me some valuable pointers about school in America, but then I had to go and lose the email, and never really got the whole gist of it.
In Australia, we have maths in four levels - General, Two unit, Extension 1 and Extension 2. Therefore, when I say that Sasuke is doing fourth level math, he's doing two unit, extension 1 and extension 2. In my education world, this means that all of those are in one class, because there is no screwing around in my world.
I did General Maths. So detail about the maths class in itself is so minimal you would need a microscope to see it.
Some minimal explanations are in the footnote.
Suigetsu practically spat his orange juice into Sasuke's face at lunch. "WHAT?"
Karin shoved herself back to avoid the spray, her face contorting back and forth from disgust to surprise. "Whatever happened to ignoring him, hm?"
Sasuke, too, had edged away from his best friend, and moved closer to the redhead on his left. The three of them sat beneath a shady tree in the grounds, slowly and leisurely eating their lunches.
"Slipped my mind," Sasuke replied, and grinned.
He'd made it to Lit class, but he'd been twenty minutes late, his good relationship with Kurenai, the teacher, the only thing saving him from detention. Even Sakura, who was in his class, couldn't dispel the overwhelming feeling of happiness that Sasuke felt upon finally resolving his and Naruto's mutual attraction.
"So when's the event?" Suigetsu asked, having apparently gotten over his shock at his friend's sudden relationship status change.
"We're going to a movie tomorrow night," Sasuke answered, the slim smile refusing to leave his face. "It's a good start."
Karin nodded in agreement. "Do you know what you're going to see yet?"
Suigetsu forced his way into the conversation at this point, declaring loudly, "Whatever you do, don't go and see a soppy romance. That'll scare him away."
"Shut up, Suigetsu," Karin snapped. "It's their choice, after all." She smiled suddenly.
"What?" Sasuke asked.
"Oh, it's just… new, how you and him are now a 'they'."
"Yeah... I guess it is a bit weird."
"Not weird," she said firmly. "This is a good thing."
"Of course it is," Sasuke agreed. "If it wasn't, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't feel so happy."
Suigetsu piped up again. "Hey, this means you might finally lose your virginity!"
Sasuke's eyebrow began to twitch, and he turned his head a little to regard the silver haired youth on his right. Suigetsu didn't even notice the death glare.
"I mean, do you even know how it works? I'm sure me and Karin could give you some adv- uh..."
Sasuke had thrown his lunch remains away from him, and Karin was quite obviously trying to climb over the brunette to get at her boyfriend.
"We're going to kill you," Sasuke deadpanned.
"YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD, SUIGETSU!" Karin screamed. With that, she launched herself over Sasuke's legs and tackled the condemned boy to the ground, wrestling in earnest. Sasuke, however, left it to her to discipline Suigetsu in her own way, preferring to watch. However, what Suigetsu had said was well worth thinking about. So, as Suigetsu grunted with the effort of keeping Karin off while not hurting her, Sasuke thought about it.
Of course he knew how it worked. He knew how homosexual men had sex with each other. Just because he hadn't actually done it before, it didn't mean that he hadn't done other things, less serious, but still on the way to the real thing, with other guys. He'd come close to losing his virginity twice already - the first time didn't deign thinking about, but the second time, with Juugo...
Sasuke knew that it hurt the first time, but when he and Juugo had first attempted to fuck, it was both unexpected and unsuccessful. They hadn't been ready for each other, and Sasuke's slim fourteen-year-old body certainly wasn't prepared to accomodate Juugo's nineteen-year-old bulk.
Juugo had some anger problems, and Sasuke, unfortunately, had been on the receiving end of his rage. Their relationship was over after that.
No. What he was concerned about was who was going to be on top, so to speak. Sasuke wanted to have an equal relationship with Naruto, and the only time that was likely to change was in the bedroom. He had had two too many relationships that ended up on the fence because he wasn't brave enough to fight back from being the submissive one.
However, Sasuke knew that Naruto wasn't like Juugo. Naruto was kind, gentle, brave, funny and smart. He'd never intentionally hurt Sasuke - but Sasuke wasn't going to fool himself and claim that Naruto wouldn't be able to hurt him accidentally. He took warnings seriously, always had; Kiba's warning had not fallen on deaf ears.
Naruto was a loose cannon - Sasuke would never assume that the blonde was as indestructible as he made himself out to be.
"Fuck, why am I..." Sasuke muttered, hearing the sharp sounds of Suigetsu's pain as Karin pinched his arms and tugged his hair. Of course, she liked his hair too much to pull it out in reality, but it still hurt even if it didn't come out.
Why am I thinking about this so soon? I mean, we only just initiated a relationship, and I'm already jumping into the hot and heavy topics…
It was only natural, though. He was a healthy young man and he had needs, just like everyone else. It didn't hurt to think about it.
I wonder if he's thought about it, too…
Without even really considering what he was doing, Sasuke turned his head and looked through the windows of the cafeteria, to Naruto's usual table.
Instead of seeing the blonde, Sasuke saw Sakura, sitting in Kiba's lap, surrounded by other randoms. Naruto was nowhere to be seen.
Sasuke immediately scanned the other visible parts of the school, and his eyes came to rest on Gaara's startling red hair, way on the other side of the grounds, accompanied by flaming yellow spikes. On closer inspection, Naruto and Gaara were accompanied by another blonde, Ino Yamanaka.
The three of them were sprawled on the grass, staring up at the sky, talking quietly. Sasuke couldn't remember when he'd ever seen Gaara looking so peaceful, smiling and laughing along with the exuberant blondes. He was so different from the surly teenager from last night.
The deadpan-humour redhead was usually so stoic and graceful, but he always carried himself with a dignity that only came from his affiliation with his older brother, Sasori.
Sasori was also one of Itachi's friends, from a time which Sasuke preferred not to think about, and was an artist, focusing on the construction of toys and puppets. Gaara was forced to take up the more mature role despite the four years separating them in age, as Sasori was more inclined to mellow his life away, submersed in art.
However, Gaara had long been suspected of carrying a softer side, and it had been rumoured that he only let it be seen while in the company of the blonde stick of dynamite known as Naruto Uzumaki.
So it's true... Naruto really does bring out the best in him. On that thought, Sasuke turned his gaze from Gaara to the blonde, and continued to look at him, unabashedly, as Naruto relaxed with his friends.
Without him realising it, the physical quarrel between Sasuke's best friends had died down, and Suigetsu and Karin were now making out on the grass behind him, Karin moulded perfectly to her boyfriend's body. They silently pulled apart, though, and settled into watching Sasuke watch his new boyfriend, Karin's head nestled against Suigetsu's chest.
The bell clanged throughout the grounds, and Sasuke visibly jumped. Suigetsu huffed out a snicker, and Sasuke levelled a glare at him, half-hearted as it was. The moment was, so to speak, broken, and all three of them got up off the ground and headed back towards the school buildings.
"Grrraaagggghhh," Sasuke groaned, slamming his hand almost through his locker door as his other arm clutched his textbooks. "WHY do I have to have Hatake for double last period? After school finishes?"
Suigetsu, a few lockers away, sighed in sympathy. "Maybe he just likes your company."
"There are only about three other people doing fourth-level maths this year," Sasuke griped. "This shit is getting a bit old."
"Hey, if you're going to decide to be a genius and do a maths class that no one else is doing, stop complaining about it, all right? There are two months before finals, and you just have to put up with it until then."
"Finals... fuck that shit," Sasuke groused. "I just want to go home and talk to Itachi."
"So ditch," Suigetsu shrugged.
"Noooo... I have to go to Maths. Fuck. My. Life." Sasuke let out a heavy sigh and shoved himself off his locker and reluctantly rotated his body in the general direction of his maths room, where his torturer, Hatake Kakashi, was sure to be awaiting him, ready with another practice exam.
"Have fun, sweetie! I'll pick you up after school!" Suigetsu mocked as Sasuke passed him.
Sasuke flipped him the bird over his shoulder.
Maths, for the first time, passed in a blur. The exam wasn't hard, exactly, just fucking tedious, and by the end of it, Sasuke couldn't tell if the diagrams were individual things or just a bunch of lines joined onto other lines, making weird shapes along the front of his vision in a kaleidoscope of mindless confusion.
The bell rang, and Sasuke wondered if his still-mildly-hungover-brain was playing tricks on him, dangling his most desired wish in front of him like a piece of meat in front of a hungry lion.
It wasn't until Hatake poked him in the forehead with his ruler that Sasuke regained his basic motor functions. He glanced around, discovering that everyone else had left, and it was now just him and Hatake in the room.
"Time to go, Sasuke," he suggested quietly, as if he didn't want to startle the teenager, "home time."
As if on cue, Sasuke's phone buzzed in his pocket, a slight tingle against his thigh. It was set to the lowest vibration he could manage, but he always felt that Hatake could hear it anyway. However, when he looked up from his finished practice exam, the teacher was already back at his desk, leafing through some notes.
How the crap does he move so fast? Sasuke blinked slowly, as if he expected his teacher to move another large amount of distance in the time it took for his eyelids to fully open again, but nothing extraordinary happened, apart from Hatake looking up and raising an eyebrow at him.
Sasuke gathered up his exam and took it to the teacher's desk for Hatake to take in and mark, but the teacher stopped him before he could hand it over.
"No need, Sasuke, I already marked it while you were dozing."
Sasuke, embarrassed, attempted to muster an excuse for his sleepiness, but his teacher once again stopped him.
"Sasuke, you only began to nap after you'd finished the exam. I could have allowed you to leave, but you seemed content to sleep on your desk instead. But relax - you got ninety-eight. You forgot to carry a number in one of the questions, but everything else was up to your usual standard. Though I would suggest you get some more sleep tonight than you did last night. Have a good afternoon, Sasuke."
Sasuke stood, dazed, for a moment, then turned on his heel, grabbed the rest of his stuff, and marched out of the classroom. As soon as he was clear, he extracted his phone and checked his messages, finding one from Suigetsu at the top of the list.
Me & Karin went home, but Kisame said he'd pick you up on his way through. Look for the obnoxious blue sportscar... parked right outside The Office.
The Office was the main office, where the principal, Tsunade, resided. Students weren't allowed to park in front of it, but Kisame held a special kind of grudge against the school because they'd towed his first car from the parking lot after he'd painted swear words on it the night before. Whenever he picked up Suigetsu or any of his friends from school, he always parked in front of The Office, because they couldn't do anything to him now that he didn't go to the school.
It was, essentially, like a big FUCK YOU to the school in general.
True to Suigetsu's instructions, Kisame and his bright blue car were waiting for Sasuke when he emerged, world-weary and maths-weary and ready to pass out. Kisame seemed to have anticipated such a state, because he wasn't inside his car - no, he was leaning on the hood, and he helpfully relieved Sasuke of his school bag, putting them in the backseat, before clapping the teenager on the shoulder and wordlessly herding him into the passenger seat.
"Thanks, Kisame," Sasuke muttered, rolling his head over to face Kisame as the huge, muscled guy slid into the driver's seat, attempting to focus with all the bright LED lights that adorned the interior of the car. "I'm so fucking glad that it's Friday..."
"No problem, Sasuke," Kisame chuckled, reaching over and ruffling Sasuke's hair so it stuck right up at the top, a style that he knew the teen detested. "Suigetsu sounded the same when he rang me up. But he didn't spend the last two hours doing four-unit maths. Feel free to pass out."
"I might just kip for a bit," Sasuke murmured, already feeling the sleep overtake him. He wished there was a naptime allocated in high school...
What seemed like two seconds later, but what was probably the better part of half an hour, Kisame was shaking him gently awake - or, at least, as gently as you could shake someone when you were well over twice the size of said other person.
"Come on, Sasuke, you're home now."
Sasuke groaned and muttered something along the lines of 'I don't wanna', and he heard Kisame chuckle, before the other man grabbed him by the elbows and forcibly removed him from the car seat.
Sasuke's eyes flew open and his legs scrambled for purchase on the pavement, scowling half-heartedly up at Kisame, who let out a throaty laugh and set him down.
"You're way more fun than Suigetsu to mess with," Kisame commented as he handed Sasuke his bag. "He just hisses at me and squirms away like a fucking snake."
He and Sasuke shook hands for a moment, and then Sasuke headed up the path to his house, and Kisame screeched off in his fancy car.
Sasuke unlocked his front door and let himself in, immediately hauling himself up the stairs and throwing himself into bed, fully clothed, dimly aware that the clock read 5:45 PM, and passed out into oblivion.
So, little did I know, I'd already mostly finished this chapter, including the foreword, and just discovered it about a week ago.
I don't have any good excuses, apart from the fact that for the past year, I've very much wanted to write but have been solidly handicapped by a vicious writing block, as well as the fact that, apart from the self-deprecating curiosity that keeps me reading the manga, I've gone off Naruto and Bleach almost entirely.
I will force myself to finish this story, because it simply WILL NOT LEAVE ME ALONE until I do, and I already know the story that I have to flesh out.
There are my reasons.
Have a lovely New Year, everyone!
x Sharzam x