Hola! Como esta? Bien Bien! Haha I don't know where that came from but either way I'm happy! I hit my 350 mark with my other story and so I'm pumped! And I'm almost at my 200 mark for this one, so they're both doing way better than I expected! And it's all thanks to you guys! So here's the thank-yous! The first thank you is to XSasuxNaruxForeverX, I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter! And thank you for sparing my life! Haha! Now the rest. Narutoisuke (haha maybe, you never know with that tricky Sasuke!), ISpeakSquirrelSqeak (haha I know that you're going to go even more crazy with this chapter, but one a couple chapters left!), XxFirexDance (I love these things! Haha just make sure to have the towel toward the last couple chapters), CassieDoesntJumpXD (and of course as soon as you say that, I screw up the time lines…-sighs- but I'll still be trying to get them back in order), blue-nuriel (yup yup, the test is a real one! You can just look for it online, but it really won't work now since you already saw the answers…haha), Searafina (haha he just put em as Yellow Orange and Red, but I think that's enough –winks- and I'm going to try to keep up this pace, but the chapters are starting to get more intense so please be patient with me!), norway22 (Haha if they just went all out the first time, the story would be over! We've gotta let their feelings bubble and THEN get to that good stuff), Deathangelebz (eep please don't hunt me down! I'm working as fast as my little fingers will let me, but I do have three assignments due for school so…), MysticMonique AKA Mina (haha aw thank you very much for the compliment! I'm hoping that I'll keep making you happy!) , asdf (haha when do I rush anything? And yea, the cat part was probably one of my favorite things to write…cept the kiss of course), Exorcist-Miranda (Naruto's cluelessness is going to continue in this one, but he's starting to get his own feelings in order), Ai Enmaxjigoku shoujo (as long as you all like it, the slaving is worth it! Naruto likes to play by the rules so he only put Sasuke on one…now Sasuke on the other hand…-winks-), Black-Sky-Loves-Me (well I guess you could say that you're right! Naruto does have a goof, but maybe not the way you think….=P), sakurananachan (haha yay! I'm happy that you feel that way because I don't want you to think that they just randomly came alive for your pleasure, but are real people! Hope you keep on liking the story!), miskie27 (haha we all love when they get involved in girly things, and try to be manly and heterosexual!), Nana-Riiko (sweet! Happy that someone doesn't mind me keeping the relationship at a nice pace!), Itooshii Koneko (haha I think it's amazing that you write as well as you do! Your reviews are fantastic, and I could never write in another language! And of course shika knows Italian, he knows everything else in this god damn world! Even Naru…-wink-), -Nightly Halo- (haha well thanks for all the of the reviews! I'm happy that you like this story too!), Asylum Heist (ow! Happiness stick? Haha something that seems to harmless can be really bad!), Akiru chan (haha aw now you're making me feel bad since I got this out a day late! –whines- but I'm tryyyyying!), Lydia-chan (yea, the test may not be real, but I'm sure we all will agree that it was a good result! =P), Pebbles of the Sand (haha the sexual tension sure is heating up, but I'm sure that it's going to make people go crazy!), Chiaki Megumi (haha I don't intend to make you wait, but I need to make sure to keep up my school work too! I'll try my best to do both), TheSilverEternity (aw come on, he's not always that bad….-stops- okay, so he's always that bad, but at least he's hot doing it!), hollowsmile (haha and yet he keeps denying that it's a real test…we all know that the answers are true), kat10788 (haha I used to get the quiz a lot too, that's why I was like 'eh, maybe Sakura and Ino get it too'! Those silly girl magazines…), Dirty Little Rock Star (I seem to make the readers anticipate a lot, even after I give them what they want! Haha), Midori-Apple (Don't worry about not reviewing! I'm just happy that you liked the chapter! And that review really did! I can also see him as an artist because it's something that people can do on their own. And Naruto and Sasuke's fights are what make their relationship stronger!), perboss (I'm glad that you like the story so far! And yea the romance was short, but the heat will get stronger), Wopsidaisy (haha well he just sees them as friends, so when they he does realize what they are he's gonna be like 'wtf!!'), zerofangirl (haha don't worry about the school thing, because apparently people have been missing school for me….-sighs- and I'm happy that you liked the chapter so much! Sorry about the switch of the title though), serlene (haha yea I try to add a chapter every couple of days, so hopefully you won't be disappointed!) , robin Maxwell (I do not plan to give on this story ever! Haha so please do not worry about that! And stop skipping school to read, that's not a good thing! –looks at other readers who have done it- uh….all of you stop!), mockup (haha I don't ever intend to have a sex scene in the second paragraph! Well, unless it's like, the fifth chapter or something! But I'm glad that you like the slowness of the chapters) , a rather slytherin griffindor (haha oh boy, apparently you're going to have a lot of loving in your life! But yea, it's the first Naru move, maybe not the last –winks-), MasochistandSadist (finally I appease both of you! Haha and yes, I've missed both of you so don't worry! Thanks for the long sweet review, I'm happy), Disgruntled Minion (I'm happy that I got you to laugh! I hope that you enjoy the chapter and it makes you feel good again!), Nekoma-chan (haha I would never say this is perfect, but I'm happy that you enjoy the read! The story will probably be done in two weeks so you have to tell me how you like the end), Lost Kin (haha well then hold your breath for the club scene,…that's all I'm saying…-grins-), Chiru-lili (a hole?! Eep! Haha now I'm scared for your health! I'm happy that you found the coffee part, I tried to make it sexy and funny), SilverMoonRose13 (steamy like coffee! –winks-, but yea, we want to make sure that our boys don't go crashing down!), COFF33MAN1A (damn my tour guide lied! Haha maybe they used them for both? I can't really imagine them swimming along the nasty roads!), roxxihearts (Imagine if they had a little 'coffee' together huh!? I think that would be the one time that I would actually like coffee), and Lilbakasaru (haha Sai back in Pompeii! Imagine him rolling around in his grave when Sakura stepped on it!)
And now a big, big thanks to my Beta Sasuchan, because without her you'd never be able to read this whole damn thing through without shooting me!
Oh! And Sorry about the title change, I didn't expect a certain part of this to take so long so it kind became an added chapter I wasn't planning on…hehe….anyways…let's go!
Club Confessions and Carousel Confusion
To say the bus ride home wasn't awkward would be like saying Lee thought youthfulness wasn't in season; a complete load of bullshit. Not to say that anyone else noticed, since they were too busy chatting about Iruka's directions when we got to the next hotel. Apparently Kakashi had decided we all needed to take a break from the historical parts of Italy and enjoy the modern aspects. And so he somehow convinced Iruka that treating us to an Italian dance club would be the best way to experience life in Florence. The whole group seemed completely ecstatic about it.
And I would have been, if I wasn't still mentally freaking out about kissing Sasuke. Why had I done that? I sent a weak glance from the window over to him, watching his silent drawing that he had been indulged in since the bus left Assisi. I wondered if he realized he scrunched his face when he made a mistake. It caused a wrinkle along the bridge of his nose, and I flushed when I realized how intently I was watching him. Crap, how long had I been staring? I ran my fingers through my hair to try and shake my feelings before I pulled my gaze back to the window. We hadn't spoken since we left. He kept drawing and I kept trying to keep my eyes off of him.
It was harder than I thought, especially at dinner, when I had to sit directly in front of him. Why did I always get stuck at tables with him? Not that we spoke, since that seemed to be the taboo now. Instead he kept all of his quiet conversation with Neji while I chatted away with Sakura. I had a feeling Sakura knew something was up by the way she kept switching her gaze between me and the teme, but she didn't speak up. Maybe she somehow knew that we were going to fix it on our own. Whether we wanted to or not.
"Sakura, do you know where the bathroom is?" I asked, looking away from the delicious food they had given us to watch her wave to her right. "Thanks!"
"Mhm," she replied, her mouth too full to make an actual word. I laughed and moved to the hallway she pointed at, jumping over the few stairs that lead down into a smaller hallway. I knew I had found the bathrooms when I reached the end of the hall, but my happy discovery slowly turned into confusion. I blinked once and continued to dart my eyes between the two plain white doors. Alright, so I knew I was in the right place because there were no other doors in the area. But apparently the restaurant wasn't used to tourists coming in, because there were only two Italian words written on the bathroom. Both of which I couldn't decipher. Sure that tape told me how to ask about a bathroom, but not about which gender for one! How was I supposed to know if I was walking into a girl's room or not?!
"Only you could get confused using the bathroom, dobe." I wondered for a moment why not talking to Sasuke had bothered me. Especially when he came up with stupid insults like that. I turned my head to see him casually walking into the hallway, standing next to me to stare at the two doors. By the look on his face, it was evident that he realized the same thing I did. Not that he'd ever admit it. "Hn."
"Yea teme, I was thinking the same thing." I let out a slow breath and looked back to the puzzle in front of us. "So which one do we use?"
"Push the door open and look."
"Why can't you?!"
"Because I thought of the idea." I growled weakly at his reasoning, but moved forward anyways. Making sure the door wasn't locked; I pushed open the first door and glanced around. Alright, that was no help. The thing looked, well…foreign. There was a toilet, and something next to it that looked like a toilet cut halfway up sitting next to it. Shikamaru had told me what it was the first time we had discovered one in our hotel bathroom, but I couldn't remember the name. I just knew people used it to clean their 'parts' according to the braniac. Then there was a sink, but you really couldn't tell shit from that. I groaned and looked back to Sasuke, shrugging.
"Well there's no urinal."
"So check the other one."
"Why do I have to do all the dirty work?" He glared at me and I stuck my tongue out in reply.
"Childish." Of course he'd say something like that. I rolled my eyes and pushed the second door open to see a mirror replica of the first. Well that wasn't exactly what I was hoping for.
"They're both the same." We paused in our conversation to let the information sink in. Alright, so both bathrooms were the same, had no English signs and both of us had to pee. Now what were we going to do?
"So uh…are we just going to use the same one or what?" He continued to glare at the language while I stared at him. He was not happy with being outsmarted by a bathroom door. Even though his face showed almost nothing but indifference, I could tell he as mad. He really looked cute when he did that nose wrinkle thing. I shook my head at the thought to focus at the situation at hand. "You going to answer me or what?!"
"You take the right one." He moved forward to the other door, glancing over to me while he pushed it open. "If they're both the same, it doesn't matter which one we use."
"Yea it does!"
"Why?"
"Neither one of us are girls. It's just wrong!" For some reason, the outburst made all conversation stop. Like somehow, I just stepped into a huge 'no-no' zone. But really I hadn't said anything too crucial. We both were guys. There were just certain things that were fact. Men shared the same bathroom. They didn't go into a female's bathroom because the sexes weren't supposed to clash. Why? Because it was what we were taught since we were born! Men and women only got that intimate during sex, unlike two men. Guys didn't have…
Oh.
"Hn." But I knew he wanted to say more as he shoved into the bathroom. Probably something like 'I doubt you were taught to kiss guys' or 'who says being wrong is always bad?'. Really things that Sasuke would never say, but could pretty much voice with a glare or snort. I glared to the door in front of me when I pushed it open. This was all the door's fault. If one of them could just say male or female, we'd never have gotten into that mess. I wouldn't have talked to Sasuke, and I wouldn't have shoved a damn foot in my mouth. It wasn't like I was trying to say what we did was wrong, because I didn't think it was.
I just…wasn't used to it yet. I mean, give a guy a break here. After liking girls, or thinking I did, suddenly switching to liking a guy was hard, confusing, and more trouble than I wanted. Not to mention it was Sasuke! I mean out of any guy that I could have started to find sexually appealing, it had to be him. That was probably harder to accept than the actual 'homosexual' piece.
Not like any of these excuses would leave my mouth the entire rest of the dinner. We were deadly silent when we climbed into our seats to take the quick bus ride back to the new hotel we were staying at. I couldn't stop looking back to him now. It was even harder now, knowing his inner Sasuke was probably fuming, more than it had been before. Times like these really needed a 'redo' button.
"Look at the fucking bathroom! I could swim in that tub!" But this hotel room was seriously making everything easier to deal with. I laughed and turned back to Shikamaru as he shrugged off his backpack, dropping it next to the other bags he had brought on the trip. I change the direction of my gaze when Sasuke moved into my vision, moving it around the room that was painted much brighter than the dusky walls of the Rome hotel. Each wall was covered with a cream paint to match the sheets on all three beds. But the best part of the entire room was the double glass doors that opened up to the balcony. Yea, that's right. We got our own balcony. This place was definitely better than the last.
"Hurry up Naruto, we don't have all day. We're walking over there in like, ten minutes!" I pushed the glass doors open and looked out to see Sakura on the balcony to my left, waving.
"Sakura? What are you doing over there?" I asked, blinking.
"Iruka got all the rooms messed up, so we're next to you guys for the next two days!" I grinned at the new discovery. I already knew Kiba's room was on the other side, but having Sakura and the girls made it even better. She must have said something because when I didn't answer, I got a roll of the eyes. "Now let's go, the dance club isn't going to wait for us!"
"Alright alright we'll be out in a minute. Bossy women…" I shut the doors before Sakura could yell (or throw something) at me. Looking back, I instantly flushed at what I saw. "Gah!"
"What dobe?" What? Oh I don't know, maybe the fact was practically naked in front of me! Well, okay he had his pants on so he wasn't technically naked. But wasn't he supposed to be a privacy freak? He can't brush his teeth with me but he can strip?
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"Changing." Okay, so I kind of asked for a stupid answer.
"Put some clothes on!" I snapped, turning to face the wall. I wasn't sure if I made it in time to cover the blush that practically scalded my face. I heard a slight shuffling behind me which both relaxed and disappointed me. I wasn't even going to try and figure that one out. "Where did Shikamaru go?"
"Went down to the lobby with Ino." His voice sounded muffled, probably from his shirt going over his head or something. I wonder if his stomach muscles would be strained…okay turning off all thoughts.
"Oh." See, mind process was shut down. And it would have gone straight into hibernation if I didn't feel his hand slide onto my shoulder blade. If it was anyone else, I would have seen it as a friendly gesture to get my attention. But since it was Sasuke, I shivered. How did his touch seem so much different than Sakura or Kiba's? Well, besides that fact that neither of them were making out with me two hours ago. This was why I wanted to shut my mind off!
"Stop daydreaming. We're leaving." I jerked my head back to look at him, but he was already on his way toward the door. Alright, so he was still angry. I mentally beat myself up the entire way down the stairs and into the huge lobby that seemed way too expensive for a group of high school kids to be staying in. The floors were practically sparkling, and everything looked luxurious and classy. Even the doors looked eloquent. I finished taking in the sites when Iruka and Kakashi came down the stairs, the latter seeming quite happy with something he had done. Whatever it was seemed to make Iruka pissed, because his cheeks were completely flushed.
"I wonder what's got Iruka so pissed." I leaned closer to Sakura, who blinked at my whispered statement before looking at the two adults. Whatever she saw made her smile, and left me thoroughly confused.
"He's not mad."
"What? But look at him!"
"Don't worry about it Naruto. You wouldn't understand." Now what was that supposed to mean?! I was used to getting called stupid by Sasuke, but now Sakura too? This was getting a little out of hand.
"I'm not dumb you know." But she didn't have time to confirm or deny because Iruka finally seemed to control his anger.
"Alright guys, we're going to be heading to the Space Electronic nightclub so that you can relax for a little while. There is a bar in the club, but if any of you are caught drinking any type of alcohol at this bar, you'll be leaving the club immediately and a call home will be made. Now we do have an early day tomorrow, and we won't be waiting for people to roll out of bed five minutes before the bus leaves. We'll be back at the hotel around midnight, so I expect everyone to be in bed by 12:30. Is that clear?" Was it 'pick on Naruto' day or something? Because I'm pretty sure that Iruka glanced at me three times during that lecture. Really the scene was getting old.
I soon discovered that it was not, in fact, 'pick on Naruto' day. No, it was 'let's make Naruto's like as horrible as possible' day. Not only was Sasuke angry at me, Sakura calling me stupid, and Iruka treating me like a three-year old, but now fan girls kept running ahead of me to try and talk to Sasuke. I know this seems completely out of context and some people may not understand what this has to do with me. So I'll break it down as simply as I can. A club equals music, right? Music means that people will be dancing with other people. And dancing is a very close and sometimes intimate thing. Normally the pair is either two girls or one girl, one boy. Sasuke is a boy with a group of fangirls who now see this as an opportunity to get close to Sasuke. So to answer my question of why I'm involved, it-
Wait, how am I involved? I mean, yeah, we had a moment. But that doesn't mean anything. For all I knew, Sasuke could just be test driving the idea of being gay. I paused at that thought before quickly moving past it. No, that wasn't it. If it was, he wouldn't be mad at me right now. And he was mad, because I had said we were 'wrong'. Which meant he thought we were 'right'…right? This whole thinking thing was really starting to hurt my head more than I liked. Between the minor headache and the giggling fangirls, I was starting to think that tonight was not my lucky night.
"Oh wow! Look at this place!" Sakura's excited chatter brought me out of my somber thoughts as I looked up to the neon lights that hung over the entrance. Even though I was a little confused, I couldn't help but start to get excited over the loud music that was playing from the inside. Sakura grabbed my wrist before I even had time to speak and dragged me into the narrow entrance where the rest of our friends were crammed into. There was a line (what do you expect with a group of forty people suddenly coming in?), but it didn't seem to bother Ino as she tried to take in all of the sights.
"They've got strobe lights and a fog machine! It's even got cages to dance in!" At the speedy talking, Shikamaru leaned against the wall and sighed.
"What a drag."
"Shikamaru! Ugh, can't you just enjoy something for once in your life?" Ino asked, glancing to him and sliding her hands on her hips. He gave her a bored stare and looked over to the dance floor again.
"They have nice couches on the side."
"Shika!" The group laughed when Ino hit him, and even I started to feel more relaxed than before. This, apparently, was a sign for the gods to make me uncomfortable again. I glanced over to Sakura, who seemed to be too distracted by something to continue to pay attention to the fight between Ino and Shikamaru.
"Sakura?" I got a bit concerned when she didn't answer. Shaking her shoulder slowly, I felt the muscles jump in surprise. She was really out of it. "Sakura, what the heck are you looking at?"
"Oh! Uh…nothing Naruto." Rolling my eyes at the obvious lie, I glanced toward the dance floor we were waiting to be admitted to. Straining my eyes to look through the fog and lights, I could barely make out the people that were clumped together. And really, nothing seemed to be too interesting to me. Well, until I finally understood what Sakura was looking at. Thank the gods the night club was mainly dark, because my cheeks rose in color faster than I could try and conceal. Italy, apparently, was very accepting of homosexuality. There, right smack dab in the eye vision of anyone who wanted to see, was two guys. And no, that's not it. Two guys who were dancing together in a very uh…un-guy way. I wouldn't be surprised to find out their hips were glued together, or their mouths for that matter. The whole scene made me squirm a bit in discomfort.
And here I was thinking it was a big deal to kiss Sasuke.
"Are you two watching guys make-out?" I jumped and jerked my head sharply away from the scene to look at Kiba, the whole group seeming to ask the same question with their eyes. I heard Sakura laughing weakly behind me, but I chose to stay quiet. I mean, what was I really going to say? 'No, I was just glancing off in space, and so was Sakura, and we both just happened to be looking at the same space that two boys kissing were in'? Alright, I was sure that would work.
"They're so cute!" Eh? I blinked once and Ino giggled, pulling a blushing Hinata closer to her and speaking again. "Aren't they adorable Hinata?!"
"U-Um…" But by the way she continued to blush and glance at the two dancing guys; I could tell she was appreciating them.
"It is the act of youth between two fortunate lovers. How I wish to be a simple pawn in the game of true love." Heck, even Lee seemed to be okay with the two guys! Feeling luckier than I had all day, I sent a hesitant glance to Neji. After all, he seemed to be the guy who followed tradition to a tee, but when I simply saw the older Hyuga roll his eyes and sigh at his best friend's lovesick words, I felt like some unknown weight was lifted off my shoulders. Who knew my friends were so accepting? A lot of our town was buried under the tradition of male and females having to be together. Our state was liberal, but our town was definitely conservative when it came to gay marriage. That was probably why I was having such a hard time. Sure I didn't have a problem with two girls being in love, or two guys kissing, but once it came to me being fascinated with other guys, I didn't really know how to deal with it. I was never taught anything positive about homosexuality. Well, except Kakashi. He was such a pervert; he didn't even flinch at the topic. He'd normally just smile and shrug, saying something like 'to each their own pleasure'. He was like my dad in that way I guess.
"You guys are really okay with homosexuality?"
"Why not? It's not like any of us have a choice in who we like. You can be okay with people being with the same sex and not wanna do it." At Kiba's shrug I felt myself flush a bit.
"Yea! Why would we get annoyed with people being in love? That's stupid Naruto." Ino seemed to take my flushing as disgust or anger instead of embarrassment, because she glared at me. "Why, are you against it or something?"
"What? No!" I shook my head quickly shaking my head. But she didn't seem to completely be accepting of my quick answer. Her lips quirked a bit before she continued.
"Just because people aren't like you doesn't mean that they're wrong, you know." Alright, now it was a full smile. I felt thrown off by the look and stumbled to get through a loud reply.
"I-I didn't say that!"
"And discriminating just because somebody is a different sexual orientation isn't fair." She shook her finger at me, but she was still smiling. The more she smiled, the louder I got. How could she smile during something like this?
"Ino I—"
"It's just like being sexist or racist now. People have the right to be happy!" That was it! I couldn't take the stupid grin anymore!
"Ino…" I growled out. And let me pause to tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a boy. The boy had a big mouth. This big mouth decided to open itself and spew out the stupidest things it could think of. One of them was to reveal the boy's most embarrassing secret as loud as it possibly could. And what, you may ask, was this secret. Well since the big mouth couldn't shut for shit, it's going to tell you. "I was looking because I was interested! I'm gay aright?!"
To say the group fell silent would be an understatement. Hinata and Sakura both stared like I expected everyone to look at me. Well, maybe not Lee because he was accepting of almost anything. Right now he practically had hearts in his eyes at the mention of me knowing about my sexuality. Don't worry, I didn't get him either. Shikamaru seemed almost expecting of the information, which made me feel more uncomfortable than the staring. He was that smart? I didn't even bother to look to Neji or Kiba, because I knew that I would probably die of shame or embarrassment. Sasuke already knew, so why he seemed almost surprised I wasn't sure. I mean hell, wasn't the kiss enough to kind of suggest we were gay? Or at least bisexual? I didn't want to think of the possibility that Sasuke didn't realize it yet. Instead I turned my focus back onto Ino, who seemed strangely pleased with herself.
"Well I could have told you that, Naruto." She flicked between my eyes and it caused me to wince.
"What the hell was that for?!" I shouted, rubbing the spot with my fingers. I was both angry and completely mortified by the fact that so many people knew what I hadn't even realized until today. When had the world turned upside-down on me?
"For being an idiot and thinking you had to hide that kind of stuff from us. We're you're friends you know!" Yeah, like I really was trying to hide it. Even though I felt like a fire engine from all of the flushing, I had to reply.
"Well it wasn't like I…I tried to hide it or something."
"Kit." Aw crap. I didn't want to, but I slowly turned my gaze over to look at Kiba's smirking face. Well, I guess a smirk was better than a scowl.
"What dog-breath?" I mumbled slowly, forcing myself to meet his gaze. Kiba had been a good friend of mine for years. I didn't want anything to change. But I mean, how could he see me the same way after finding out I was gay?
"You better not drool over my hot body when we work out. " Was that…a joke? I could only assume my face showed how floored I was because Kiba laughed and continued to tease me. "I mean I know I'm sexy, but you're going to have to contain yourself."
"Oh please, as if you're even his type! I'm sure Naruto doesn't want a meat-head for a boyfriend." Ino rolled her eyes as she spoke, probably because my jaw was too low on the floor to speak.
"Aw guys don't pick on Naruto." I felt a comforting arm around my shoulder. Sakura sent me a slight smile before scolding the two in front of us. "He's probably just getting used to all of this. Having you two taunting him isn't going to make it any easier."
"We're just having some fun, we don't really mean it." As if to prove his point, Kiba punched the side of my arm like we did when we played football or watched a game on TV. Like we've always done.
"You're all…really…"
"Okay with it? We just explained this five minutes ago. The rules don't change just because it's you, ya know. Go ahead and wave your rainbow flag." I managed my first glare at Kiba for the comment.
"I don't have a god damn flag!"
"Well I know what to get you for your birthday next year."
"I'm going to kill you!" And I would have if Sakura hadn't squeezed my shoulder to remind me that I was still attached to her.
"Let's save the fighting until after the trip. We're here to party you know." Well she did have a point. Not to mention that were almost at the front of the line, and I really didn't want to get in trouble for wasting my time with dog-breath. So slowly I unclenched my fist, turning my head away from Kiba and tilting it upward.
"Fine." So it was a little childish. In fact, I was surprised the teme didn't comment about it. Speaking of him…I looked to where he stood from the corner of my eye, slightly disappointed to realize his surprise was mostly gone. I guess I should have known my accidental admission would shock him. Between Assisi, the bathroom, and just now, my mouth was getting a serious work-out. I meant what I said on the bench. I meant what I said here. I wasn't so sure about this feeling being 'wrong'. In fact, I kind of liked how it felt to know Sasuke was watching me. My pride was completely against it, but I was starting to think it was okay to cage the tiger every once in a while. The sheep had to have time to be free, too.
I let the guy at the entrance of the dance floor tag my hand before stepping onto the wooden floor and letting Sakura drag me to dance. Really with dancing it didn't matter what sex you preferred to be with. Swinging around with Sakura or striking disco poses with Lee was all the same. Completely and utterly stupid looking, but totally worth it for all the fun we had. The place had an eccentric mix of Italian and English music, which was almost all rap, techno, or party songs. Shikamaru seemed perfectly content watching our group from the sidelines, and the moments I did need a rest I could see why he enjoyed the body-molding couch cushions. Sasuke leaned against the column next to where we were all partying, and despite my glances he wouldn't step foot onto the dance floor. Neji, however, wasn't able to avoid the same fate.
"I'm not doing that." The glare should have made me and Lee stop what we were doing and run away in fear. But I was stupid and Lee was passionate, so it didn't work so well.
"Come on Neji! You've just got to put your hands up and make little ducks with them!" I waited until the part of the 'the chicken dance' song came to the ducks, showing him how to 'be a duck'.
"No."
"Then flap your arms!" Which I proceeded to flap arms like a chicken. His glare intensified.
"No."
"Take it away Lee!" And I laughed when Lee starting to shake his whole body at the 'I just want to be me' line. Really the song was ridiculous, but everyone had to dance to it once. In fact, I could see Ino pulling Shikamaru to the dance floor as we worked with Neji. Deciding that everyone had to do it, I made a daring move. "You keep working with Mr. Stiffy here; I'm going to go get the teme."
"I will prevail! You must as well, Naruto!" I nodded enthusiastically at Lee before moving toward my new target. Sasuke saw me coming, which was evident from the slight eyebrow raise he gave me. I tried to shake off the thoughts of our three previous encounters to grin at him.
"Let's go teme! You're going to dance whether you want to or not!" He scoffed at my proclamation before scanning the dance floor with his eyes.
"Why would I want to make a fool of myself? That's your job." His eyes returned to mine, and I scowled. I was a fool for having fun?
"You've gotta be kidding me! I'm just having fun; I'm not trying to make a statement or anything like that. Stop thinking about everything so critically." Without thinking I reached forward and grabbed his hand. I yanked him a bit, and I was surprised at how easily he let me pull him from the pole he was leaning against. I was even more shocked when the hand that I had grabbed didn't jerk away from my touch. We stood in front of each other for a moment, and I hated how I had to look up in order to keep his stare. Really it was because he was standing so close to me. Who even said the teme had that right anyways? I should have hit him. But at the moment, my brain was scrambling to think of what I was aiming to do before I got stuck on his gaze. He should come with a warning label. Something like 'do not look directly in eyes, for you will lose all intelligence and your stomach will turn to goo'. Yeah, that sounded about right.
"I have to think when a certain dobe is around. Unlike your muddled brain, I think of the consequences of losing my mind." How did he make an insult sound so sexy? I mean really, his voice shouldn't drop like that. It shouldn't make my toes start to curl in my shoes. I let out a weak breath when his head dipped closer to mine. Was Sasuke going to kiss me? I mean, I had said I was gay, yeah. But Sasuke was still in the clear. All he had to do was not lean down, not make my eyes close, not breath against my lips. But now that he had, I was really struggling to remember why it was so bad for him to kiss me. I mean, what was one little kiss going to do? It was dark over here, and it wasn't like they were all watching us. Wait, were they? I closed my eyes tighter when his free hand pressed to the side of my hip, brushing just under the t-shirt I wore. Suddenly, my mind didn't really care.
"Teme." It was a natural reaction to insult him when nothing else in my mind worked. It wasn't natural to hear my breath hitch when his hand tightened along my waist.
"Dobe." It was natural to hear an insult in return. It wasn't natural to feel the insult rumbling against my lips. But then again, who said all natural was better anyways? The way my weakened knees saw it, artificial was much better. I faintly heard the changing of the song, and I wasn't sure why that mattered to me. Especially with us hovering this close to a repeat of today. But somehow, through the unfairness of the world, my pride reared its ugly head and reminded me of the dance I didn't get. Torn between body and mind, I actually whined. Something that didn't go unnoticed. "What?"
"Damnit." Maybe I said it more to myself than him, because I certainly hated the other half of me that was demanding I didn't give into Sasuke. What I saw as pleasure, my pride saw as weakness. And sadly, both of us agreed that we were anything but weak. So mustering everything I could, I pushed myself away from Sasuke and spoke. "You're going to dance damnit."
"Hn." Maybe I was just getting better at reading Sasuke's facial expressions, but I knew that Sasuke was not exactly pleased with my decision. But even as he sulked (which he denied), I got Sasuke to dance. It was only a few seconds, my hands were moving his arms, and he seemed completely appalled by the idea of dancing to a song that said 'all these bitches crawl', but it was still a dance. And I bragged about it the entire way home, despite how tired everyone was. Even Sasuke seemed to pass out as soon as he crawled into his bed. The club had made me wired with energy, but I managed to get rid of it through a warm shower. Finally the affects of sleep were starting to wear me down, so I decided it was safer to pass out in my bed than somewhere on the floor.
I stared up at the ceiling, letting everything from the day hit me. Me and Sasuke had kissed, a lot. We had almost kissed again, which I was assuming would have been a lot too. I had unconsciously spilled about my newfound sexuality, and somehow I was starting to accept my feelings about it. But Sasuke hadn't said anything during the discussion, and even when we were alone he didn't speak up. I glanced over to him, watching how easily his mask slipped from his face when asleep. It was like seeing a completely different person. He'd frown or part his lips without thought, and his eyes would scrunch whenever something seemed to bother him in his dream. There were times when he seemed relaxed, and actually content with whatever he was thinking of. I couldn't help but question if I fit in that dream somewhere. Which facial expression did I make him use? I was so entranced watching him, I didn't realize until the next morning that I had fallen asleep to it. Not that I'd ever tell someone that!
The morning was more of a blur than anything else. Between getting ready, grabbing a quick breakfast, and scrambling onto the bus, I hardly had time to even blink before we were standing in front of some fountain. And to my left, there were more weird statues. In fact the whole square had statues! What the hell was this anyways?
"The Piazza Della Signoria. Basically the most famous square in Florence. It's widely known for their sculptures that are places in the square such as the 'Fountain of Neptune'and the copy of Michelangelo's 'David'." Shikamaru was really getting good at this tour guide thing. All we had to do was get him to wave his arms a bit more and it'd be like the umbrella lady back in Rome. To say that she was not missed would be an understatement.
"What do you mean copy? I'm pretty sure that thing looks real." He sighed and nodded to the statue he had been looking at.
"The real one is at the Gallery of the Academy of fine arts. It's still in Florence, just somewhere where it can be watched and not vandalized. The Fountain of Neptune has been broken and destroyed several times over the years, and so the statue is safer in the academy."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense." Although I really didn't get what the point of destroying the stuff here was. Sure me and Kiba had our fun back home, but we never actually broke stuff. And the stuff we did write on weren't pieces of art. That'd be more rude than fun.
"Alright guys, pull it in." Iruka sounded like a coach trying to get his team into a huddle. Either way it worked, because out attention was pulled from the artwork to look up at him. "Today you're going to be able to go off on your own. I suggest that you go see the Uffizi ¸which has beautiful sculptures on either side of its walkway. It's to the right of the square. Also know that there is a whole other side of Florence across the bridge that you should go explore. However, please make sure to be back here by six, because of our reservations. Besides that, have a nice day and enjoy the several historical places in the city." He waved us off like a mother does during the first day of school. Really, he had to be a teacher in a past life or something because he was too good at it. Unlike a certain pervert, who didn't even know where his class was half of the time. Why my dad even let him become a teacher I'll never understand.
But I totally forgot about Kakashi when we moved all through the town of Florence. We started with Iruka's suggestion and hung around the Uffizi to check out all the neat creations of art it had. Hinata had been thoroughly scared when she went up to one of the cupid sculptures, only to realize it was a human painted as a statue. Shikamaru explained later than some people make a living off of pretending to be statues and letting people take pictures with them. Sure it seemed a little weird to us, but costumes were practically the same thing. Didn't we dress up every Halloween in order to get treats and prizes given to us? The idea was just taking a childish holiday and making it into a 9-5 job.
After that we onto the Ponte Vecchio, which is really just a strip of buildings that were put over the river that went through Florence. It didn't look much different than the other parts of Florence, because it seemed like a normal street. Building and signs seemed to blend in more as you ventured on through the huge city. Somehow we managed to stumble onto the Santa Maria del Fiore, which made no sense because we had tried to go the other way. The minor slip up should have been a warning for what would happen later on that night. But instead of thinking about it, Sakura took the slip-up as an opportunity to explore the symbol of Florence city. By the time we sifted our way back to the meeting spot, we still had two hours left to kill.
"So what are we doing next?" I glanced around energetically at the others, who seemed to be completely unresponsive to my question. Apparently, the day wore them out much faster than me.
"I swear to god he has something living inside of him. There is no way that he's able to have this much energy." I rolled my eyes at Ino's complaint before patting my stomach and grinning.
"This is all me! Not my fault you all have weak bodies." I grinned for a moment until I got hit over the head. "Damnit!"
"I'm not weak." Sakura sure could get scary when she wanted to prove a point. I nodded quickly in order to avoid another hit to head. She seemed satisfied with my obedience when she turned to the group and giggled. How she was able to switch I'd never get. "Let's lead over to the other side of the bridge! I want to go see the actual statue of David before we have to go."
"Well, I guess I'll go with billboard on this one."
"Stop calling me that Ino-pig!" The two girls stared at each other for a second before pouting, glaring away like little kids. I guess I could see where Sasuke was coming from when he called that childish. Not that I was going to tell him.
"I…I think I-I'll stay here." I glanced over to Hinata, who quietly walked over to Ino and held out a map. "Please…I-I got two from the hotel. Just s-so you won't get lost."
"If we do, I'll write an 'S.O.S' on Sakura's forehead." Ino winked to us before she quickly ran toward the bridge, a steaming pink haired girl quickly following behind.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru glanced over to Lee, sighing. "You wanna go after them?"
"Of course! We would not want those two lovely ladies to be left alone in the depths of Florence. Who knows what men would come after our maidens?" I don't think Shikamaru expected Lee to latch onto his arm. Well, at least Neji seemed to be prepared for the attack, because he didn't try to fight when the absurdly strong male linked arms and dragged them along the path that the two girls had blazed down. I could faintly hear Lee's shouts echoing through the air, but it disappeared after a few seconds. Man that kid ran fast.
"Hey Hinata, why did you wanna stay here? Don't you normally hang out with the girls?" Hinata blushed slightly as I directed the attention to her, and she tightened her grip on her own map before fumbling to put it in her bag.
"I-Its ju-just…there's something here…I want to do."
"What's that?"
"She wants to find the Piazza della Repubblica. It's some square a couple blocks from here," Kiba explained, grabbing the map gently from Hinata and sliding it into the front pocket of her backpack. Really I never thought Kiba could really be soft with people. Between his rough housing at school and his physical answers to almost any problem in life (like beating up the microwave when it didn't work right), I never saw a soft side to him. But when he was with Hinata, he sure knew how to take care of her. And since she was so naturally skittish, I was amazed she wasn't scared away by his huge personality. But then again, the better things in life really couldn't be explained through words, huh?
"Well then let's go there!" Hinata seemed shocked by my willingness to go without actually knowing where we were headed, but I brushed it off. People seemed to give me that look a lot.
"Wh-what about Sasuke?" She asked, and I blinked before I looked around. Sure enough, Sasuke was still around and now staring at some sculpture underneath an archway. I sighed slowly and looked to the two, waving them forward as I started to walk toward the teme.
"I'll go get him, but it may take a while. He's got his notebook out, which means he's sketching. I'll meet you back in front of the fountain in twenty and we'll head over to the square together."
"Alright kit, but don't get into a fight with him. The last thing we need to have you two draw attention to yourselves." Kiba was starting to sound like Iruka. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of that before jogging over to where Sasuke stood, glancing between him and the statue. Really the 'scene' it was showing made no sense. First off, everyone was half naked. One of the guys was holding a woman in the air, while the other was just crouching under them. What the heck was going on? I hesitated to break the concentration that Sasuke was putting into his sketch, but proceeded after a few minutes of silence.
"So uh…are they having a party or something?" He scoffed and paused in his drawing to look over at me.
"It's the Rape of the Sabine Women, it's not a party." I stared in shock and glanced back up at the painting.
"What?! Why the hell would they show something like that in public? I mean yea the Italians are more accepting of crap but raping a woman is a little bit disturbing! And why the hell are you sketching it you perverted asshole?"
"You idiot," Sasuke said, turning his attention back on his sketch book. "Rape doesn't always mean sexual assault. Its origin is raptio, which means 'kidnapping'. The Sabine were people who had populated the area before the Romans, and had women that they were unwilling to give up. So the Romans took them by force. That is what this scene is portraying."
"Oh." Well I guess that made sense. Romans were known to just take over people that didn't want to listen to them. Or at least that's what Shikamaru told me. "How did you know all of that anyways?"
"I read about the sculpture before I came here. I knew we were visiting this square, and I wanted to know what I was drawing." Even as he explained his knowledge of the sculpture, his head continued to shift between looking at the sketch and the real statue. He really liked art, didn't he? At first I thought he was just saying it was a hobby or something, but Sasuke had actually researched and studied the pieces of art that he knew we were going to visit. He had probably gone straight to the statue after we came back judging by how far he had gotten in the picture. And he seemed to get even better as the days went on. Art was a huge part of Sasuke's life that I didn't even know of, that I wanted to know of.
"So uh…who made it?"
"Made it?"
"Yeah, the sculpture. Who err…sculpted it?" He glanced to me from the corner of his eye before mentally deeming something I couldn't figure out.
"You don't even like art."
"Well yeah…but it's different now!" He finally dropped his sketch to his side, turning his full attention toward me. I couldn't help but mentally dance at how I manage to catch him interest.
"Why?"
"Because I want to know more about it now. About the people and the sculptures and crap like that." I guess I really shouldn't have used that particular word to describe what we were looking at. It seemed to prove to Sasuke how little I really cared.
"Forget it dobe."
"No, I want to learn, really! It's something that you like, right?" I didn't really know why I wanted to learn more about art. I had said before that I was really more of a movie person. And given the choice, I'd probably still pick the movie theatre over a museum 99% of the time. But I wanted to try and learn how to see it like Sasuke did. So I shoved my hands into my sweatshirt pockets and glanced down at my feet to kick at the imaginary rocks in front of me. "You like it so…so help me like it too! Teach me why you like it so much, that way you don't have to go off on your own to draw all the time. If you're not going to try and make it big with art, then at least let me see it. I don't mind telling you that it sucks teme."
"Hn." I heard him shuffling a bit next to me, probably to close his notebook before calling me a name and leaving. "Giambologna."
"Uh…did you just call me some type of Italian bologna?" I looked up just in time to catch his eye-roll as he started to finish the sketch he was making. So he wasn't planning on leaving me.
"That's the sculptor's name, dobe." Ah, but he still managed the insult. Somehow it didn't bother me as much as normal. Instead I listened quietly (or as quietly as I could, since it is me we're talking about) while Sasuke continued to talk about the sculpture. He told me about the angles and different ways to look at it. Then he went into an explanation of how it wasn't even meant to be a real piece of art so much as an example for certain parts of art. Apparently it was made from one piece of marble, and it wasn't as scary as it sounded. In fact, the women chose to stay with the Romans that captured them in the end. I guess this Giam-guy wasn't the only one who portrayed the event. Others did the 'intervening' of the women during the war between the Romans and Sabine warriors. Most other representations, however, were paintings and not sculptures. That's why this one stood out so much. Well that and something about it leading to the 'Baroque', an art period that Sasuke said was 'too complicated for a dobe like you'. I planned to Google it when we got home to prove I could understand anything he threw at me.
Of course, all of this took time to explain. And then more time to re-explain it when something didn't make sense. And so it was no surprise that Kiba came storming over to us forty minutes later, hollering at us to get moving. Even though Kiba was right, I still had to fight him about it. So when Hinata came in-between us to keep us from continuing, I was mildly reminded of the Sabine women we were just talking about.
"So what's this square got that's so important anyways?" I asked, stretching my arms over my head. The day was easily starting to slink into night, and all the lights in the city were starting to flicker on.
"Stop being so impatient, you'll see it when we get there. In fact, you'll probably like it just as much as Hinata." Kiba's comment interested me. Well then I knew it wasn't going to be something boring. Sasuke probably wouldn't like it, but he could suck it up. After all, wasn't this an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? I couldn't waste it worrying over what a stoic bastard like Sasuke considered 'fun', especially when my eyes fell on what stood in the square.
"No way! They have a carousel here, too?!" I stared at the lit machine in front of me, watching it slowly turn in the quiet area. The only noise around was the corny circus music playing from the carousel that seemed basically deserted. Why weren't there people lined up for this? I looked over to Hinata and grinned. "Let's go ride it!"
"O-Okay!" Even Hinata seemed excited enough to push past her shyness while we moved quickly toward the guy running the carousel. Fishing through our pockets for the money, I glanced over my shoulder to see that Sasuke had stopped a few feet away.
"Teme, stop being a stiff and come on!"
"No." I glared at him before rolling my eyes, handing over my money to the guy. Fine, let Sasuke be all 'adult' about it. Hopping up onto the platform, I picked one of the white horses with a red and blue feather sticking out of its head. I was a bit surprised when it suddenly started to move, but I soon got over it and laughed when Kiba seemed to almost fall from his horse. The ride was fun, which you really wouldn't expect from something that just spins around. For the first time I saw Hinata giggle and smile without nervousness. Halfway through the ride Kiba grabbed her hand, and the two shared a quiet moment that I was smart enough to not interrupt. See, Uzumaki Naruto has some brains.
We decided to go on again, since it was probably the only time we'd be able to do it in our lives. I tried to convince Sasuke to come on, but he didn't seem to budge for any of my insults. I was tempted to drag him onto a horse and pay for him, but I soon decided he wasn't worth my time. So once again I rode alone, making stupid faces at Sasuke every time we'd spin around. He'd only roll his eyes while he watched us, but didn't move from his spot until we had our fun and came back to him. He stayed mostly quiet while we walked through the town, trying to find some new places to explore. But when the alarm went off on Sasuke's phone, we quickly turned to head back.
Or…we tried to.
"Hey, uh…which way did we come from?" I glanced at the crossroad, which gave us three options to use. We had been down so many roads; I couldn't remember which one went where. I took a step toward the one that was in front of us before hesitating and stepping back again. Damnit, why couldn't I remember?
"Shit, don't tell me we're lost," Kiba said. I shook my head to try and ignore the undeniable truth.
"No way! We…we came from the left." And I walked down the street I chose with as much confidence that I could muster. The others didn't argue as we walked, searching for anything that seemed to be familiar. But after five minutes of weaving through people and streets with unreadable names, I felt even more confused than before. And apparently, it was starting to get to Kiba.
"We're getting nowhere! And now we're like, ten minutes late for our check in time. Iruka's going to kill us!" Just thinking about Iruka's yelling made me quickly shake my head.
"No he won't! We'll…I'll…oh!" I snapped my fingers and looked back at the group, grinning. "I'll run ahead and go tell them that we're all coming! That way we won't get in trouble for being late! I'll explain how we got lost, and Iruka will be fine."
"Wa-wait Naruto-kun…" Hinata moved to grab something from her bag, but I didn't have time to waste. So quickly I gave a wave before darting down the street we were on. I didn't mind shifting through the people as I continued to look around for something that would direct me back to where we were supposed to be. Oh! I remembered that sign! Taking off down another street, I slowly started to get confused when the noise of the city died off instead of increased. Just…where was I heading? I finally stopped in some side street to catch my breath as I glanced around. Nothing was in English, which meant it was complete jibberish to me. Taking a deep breath, I moved to run again before a hand grasped onto my wrist. I jumped and turned to punch the person square in the face, but he easily caught my fist with his hand.
"Dobe." I sighed when I realized it was Sasuke. "What are you doing?"
"What do you mean doing? I'm trying to find Iruka!"
"Without a map?" I opened my mouth to defend myself, but easily realized how dumb I'd sound in saying 'yes without a map teme!' "We need to get back to Kiba and Hinata. She's got a map we can use to trace back our steps."
"Fine, sorry for trying to help," I muttered, throwing his hand off my fist before walking toward the end of the street. "So which way did you come from anyways?"
"I was following you; I wasn't exactly keeping my eyes on my surroundings as well. I figured the one running like a madman would be."
"Eh…"
"I forgot said madman was an idiot."
"Hey!" I glared at him as he took in our surroundings, but I felt a slight string of panic start to grow inside of my stomach when he didn't insult me again. Sasuke was trying to find a way out of this. Trying, and seeming to fail when his whole body tensed up. It was only then I realized that sometime during my run it had started to sprinkle. I guess Iruka was right about the weather. Iruka…was he worried about us yet? And what would he do when Hinata and Kiba came back? Suddenly, I was slammed with the reality of the situation.
Me and Sasuke were lost. And even the teme couldn't figure out what to do next.
And that's where I'm ending it! Why? Because I'm late and I need to still get this edited! So now the boys have done it. They're stuck in Florence without a map. Let the chaos commence! Haha I hope that you liked it, and review for the next chapter!
Chapter Seven: Forever In Florence (the real deal)