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"Talking"

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To put it simply, Naruto was having a shitty day. After figuring out that Gaara left him to wake on his own, he was currently late for school. Make that about thirty minutes late. So no matter how fast Naruto ran or called on a few favors, he would probably be late for school by about an hour and miss first class.

Since he was going to be late already, the blond took his time doing his morning routine in patience. Unfortunately, the hot water heater must have broke or something since he had to experience a cold shower, there was no fruit left in the bowl, Naruto bumped into more furniture, and his cell phone was chalked full of messages from Sakura wondering if he was kidnapped or raped.

As he arrived at school, his art teacher gave him one of those pitying looks. Was he in trouble with Tsunade again? He shouldn't be since his detention days were done with and he hasn't caused anymore trouble lately.

No it was much worse.

It turns out that one of her other student ruined his clay sculpture by leaving a huge chuck of clay on the baking kiln.(1) Nothing was saved from the explosion besides the tiny pieces of his fox's ear and dust-worthy clay limbs. The only thing that actually went well for him was turning in his homework on time.

Feeling frustrated for the billionth time today, an underclassman had the nerve to run into him and spilled juice all over his uniform at lunch. Naruto left the cafeteria and changed into his gym clothing after scaring the boy to death with his vengeful glare. Naruto wrinkled his nose at the oppressed smell of gym socks and sweat that radiated off his offensive clothes. It was not abnormal to wear gym clothes in case of an emergency, but the stench kept most people at a comfortable three meters away. The only person able to breach the wall of horrifying odors surrounding Naruto was no one other than Sakura.

"When was the last time you washed that thing!" Sakura screeched.

"Before the soccer game with Sasuke."

"And you haven't washed it yet?"

"Your point?" Naruto raised an eyebrow as he watched his pink-haired friend visibly gag at the horrible smell of manly men.

"My point is that you should go home and change or at least wash it!"

Naruto was mentally covering his ears by this point. He, in no way, wanted to deal with the girl this time in the afternoon. The blond wondered if the girl ever shuts up. Dealing with her is like whiplash. One second she is complaining about how badly he smells, and the next she's all motherly and asking what had happened to him this morning. Naruto had a newfound respect for the jumpsuit clad Rock Lee for dealing with this on a daily basis.

At the sound of Sakura chattering about school projects and Sasuke, Naruto moaned quietly at the rising "to do" list he was going to have to finish by tonight or tomorrow. He had a project he had due next week in World History, an art project to start over, finish other meaningless homework assignments, clean his house, go to work, attend Sasuke's party tonight, and … just too much.

The more the day went on, the more he felt depressed as a constant stream of messages from Sakura about the party at Sasuke's tonight. Naruto contemplated on whether or not he should change his number again. That was until he spotted a mysteriously familiar red head amongst the boring hair colors of the KH population. Running straight for him, Naruto jumped onto Gaara's back which caused the red-haired teen to nearly tip over. The only reason why they didn't fall was because people like Gaara just don't fall over from blonds pouncing on their back.

"You smell," Gaara said as he grimaced over Naruto's weight, "and lay off the ramen would you?"

"You know I don't eat ramen anymore…much," Naruto said in Gaara's ear, "It's not like weigh that much! Maybe you're just too weak. Where are you heading to?"

Gaara nearly grunted in response as Naruto snatched the schedule from his hand and examined the sheet. Gaara had already memorized his schedule by now so he ignored the blond on his back and started to head over to the last class of today.

"Hey, we have the same last class together." Naruto's enthusiasm was none existent as Naruto randomly droned on about what the class was like. Even though he didn't show it, Gaara always worried over his blond's state of mind. He wondered if Naruto finally was tripping over the deep end.

Stares and gossips followed the two as he continued walking while Naruto had practically glued himself to abused back. The duo gained a lot of attention from the rest of the student body down the hallways considering the mysterious exchange student had hardly spoken today besides the times when a teacher addressed him. Whispers about how Naruto might have known this man spread like wildfire and perverted fan girls fantasized about their two classmates.

Isn't high school gossip wonderful?

Naruto was chatting to his quiet transportation device until they reached Asuma's chemistry class. Most of the class fell into silence at the strange pair while more fan girls giggled at each other, "Uzumaki-kun, why are you riding on our new transfer student's back?"

The blond stared at Asuma-sensei strangely as he tilted his head questioningly, "Why not?"

"Well, it is really distracting for a teacher to see his student getting a piggy-back ride from," Asuma took a moment to check his attendance list, "Gaara Sabuku…" Asuma stared at Naruto while idly chewing on his toothpick.

"It's not like I just met him or something," Naruto pouted at his teacher until Gaara suggested he get off considering they were in the classroom now. The blond sighed as he slipped off Gaara's back and plopped down in his seat near the back. He could practically feel all of the stares aimed at him, but he didn't care since he was finally able to have a word to Gaara about anything in general. A small smile graced his calm features at the thought of talking to Gaara in the future.

As Naruto stared at the board ahead of him, the late bell rang and the chords of conversation that had started back up after their interesting entrance, died back down. Besides getting a piggy-back ride, nothing else was supposed to be eventful today, but karma had other ideas. Naruto felt a science book slam him in the back of the head which caused him to lightly yelp at the impact. If Asuma knew what was going on in the back of his classroom, he did not care considering he just continued on talking about significant figures and accuracy.

The blond spun around in his seat to glare at the gaze of the Uchiha himself. Naruto was then assaulted by a piece of paper that was shot in between his forehead. He started to glare at the dark stare Sasuke was giving him, and further frowned when the guy didn't even seem to be fazed. Naruto turned back around and opened the note that fell into his lap to avoid looking at Sasuke anymore. Sometimes he swore Sasuke was always on male PMS or something.

"What the hell was that?" Naruto read the neat scribble across the page. The blond simply wrote back something stupid and flung the note behind him. He almost laughed at the growl he received in return.

The notes kept going back and forth while Naruto kept on pissing Sasuke off with his cryptic messages. Never before had Sasuke ever felt this angry with Naruto, besides yesterday when he wouldn't listen to him. Why wasn't he answering him? Why come up with all these excuses? Sasuke felt something horrible bubble up in him that made his body feel disgusted. "Why aren't you answering me?"

"I am, but may be it's not what you want to hear," Sasuke was ready to grab Naruto and strangle him as he replied back to Naruto's messy handwriting. Thankfully after a few notes of insults later, the final bell of the day had rung signaling their release. Naruto cursed himself for not taking proper notes.

"Naruto, can I speak with you," the look in Sasuke's eyes left no room for argument. Naruto was determined to get out as soon as possible, but he found that his feet were melted to the floor. Sasuke was looking at him with a…he didn't even know how to describe it. The look made him feel weird, and not the usual "I hate you" feeling he used to resist Sasuke's ego. This one made him feel lesser than Sasuke. Just like in the old days where he used to follow Sasuke around as if he worshipped him. The days where him and Sasuke were just them and talked to each other without having their conversations end up in fist fights. Oh how he missed just being there with the raven.

Though Naruto wanted to lash out at the jerk, he could not bring himself to do it. He let himself be dragged off into another part of the school, and the blond was having a hard time focusing on the pathways between the crowded hallways that contained no red head in sight. Naruto sighed at his idiocy and just stared at the warm hand enveloping his in a tight embrace. He did not know where he was, but if he had to guess, it would be near the amateur science laboratories the school provided for their children.

"Now explain," Naruto frowned at the loss of touch that disappeared when Sasuke released him but seemed to linger on his skin. Sasuke had crossed his arms with an angry gaze at Naruto in his almighty way. The blond scoffed at the sight before him. Why did he even let the raven bring him out here? Naruto was losing his touch.

"I don't have anything to say to you."

"You do. Who was that?"

"Who was who?"

"Naruto." The gaze intensified to smoldering levels that left Naruto breath taken. The sun had set nicely on Sasuke's hair, and the nostalgia of the moment made the blond feel like he was on fire.

"Didn't you hear? His name is Gaara."

"Don't give me that crap. What is going on between you two?"

"He's my friend and I wanted to have some fun. He was the closest one nearby," It was a half-lie, but a lie all in the same. If Naruto wanted to survive, he would need to look away soon. Anytime now…

Sasuke backed Naruto up against one of the walls and trapped him in between his arms. The blond could not escape with two hands resting besides his head to prevent any sort of major movement. Obsidian eyes continue to bore into Naruto's cerulean ones. The raven seemed to be losing face a lot more lately around Naruto. "This is not as simple as you are trying to make this out to be Naruto."

So Sasuke could tell he was lying? "Then why don't you tell me what's going on?" Feeling frustrated from being interrogated, Naruto invaded Sasuke's personal space and stood as tall as he could against the raven's chest. He still came up a bit short, but there was no way he would let himself to be pushed around by Sasuke. Their breath mingled and faces were only centimeters apart. Sasuke only briefly cut off their connection to stare at Naruto's features a bit before returning his gaze back to the blond's "intimidating" glare. He barely smiled at how cute Naruto was being.

"Why are you smiling?" Sasuke lifted his hands from the wall and let them slowly fall to his sides reluctantly. His lips didn't even look like they were happy, yet Naruto could dissect his emotions so easily with just a mere sharp look. May be it was because his eyes were glowing that made Naruto think he was amused.

"You still haven't answered me yet." Naruto pouted at his response. Sasuke never answers his questions so why should he? What was he protecting himself from? Naruto did not know.

"And you never answer my questions. At all. What right do you have to demand something of me when you don't even give anything in return?" With that amazing exiting statement, Naruto determined it was time to take his leave. The blonde slipped past a stunned Sasuke and almost made it back out into the open until his wrist was held back by another. Naruto took a deep breath and shook the grip off.

The hand fell away.

"I'll see you later tonight. Good bye Sasuke." What ever was happening between him and Sasuke, it had to stop before he got hurt again. He couldn't handle another hit in the stomach. He couldn't handle another betrayal.

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