Heeeeey you guys ):D I totally haven't been gone for a long time and you guys totally didn't forget about this story! Sorry for the wait, I'm getting back into writing. So if you could, please read and review and let me know if I should even continue!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and I'm preeetty sure there's gonna be lots of gay things in this story.
Naruto wasn't really sure how he had expected his first day at school after the incident to go, but this was definitely not it.
He had expected his friends (especially Sakura) to be mad at him for not answering their texts, telling them where he was or if he was okay. He had even expected to possibly be confronted by Sai. But the one thing he hadn't expected was that, upon entering the school, he would be bum-rushed and pushed into the janitors' closet near the front office. The room was dimly lit and crowded with mops, trashcans, wet floor signs, and an assortment of other things. It smelled like a shed and old paint and was insanely small.
So, with his back pressed against the wall (and the handles of some mops), Naruto alternated between looking towards the door apprehensively, hoping that no one would decide to come in, and looking back to the figure hovering above him, and wishing that whoever it was would just back up already. Shifting uncomfortably, his legs on either side of an overturned trashcan, Naruto began the process of trying to stand up straight.
"Wait, you can't leave." The figure insisted quietly, stepping closer to Naruto, their chests bumping, pushing Naruto back into his original position of squatting, hands splayed on the wall behind him. The impact of Naruto's back hitting the wall caused a few mops to fall over, landing on the figure's back.
Naruto growled irritably, recognizing the voice instantly: Kiba.
"Jesus, if this is your weird way of saying that you missed me and were extremely worried, you couldn't have done it in a bigger room or something?" Naruto seethed, glaring up at Kiba who still hovered above the blonde.
Kiba shifted, one foot inside an empty paint can, the other standing on a mop,
"I had to get to you before you walked out into the back."
Naruto's glare darkened as his bruised back began to ache from his position. On Saturday morning, he had walked out of one of Iruka's guest rooms with the intent of digging up some breakfast. On the third step down he had casually looked over the railing and into the living room, receiving the shock of his life at the sight of Kakashi and Iruka tangled up together on the couch. He had had time to exclaim, "oh what the fuck", before overstepping and then tumbling down the rest of the (thankfully) carpeted stairs. The bruises would take weeks to heal and he could definitely feel them now as he stood, hunched over, practically straddling a trash can.
"Yeah, so like I said," Naruto winced as he once again started to straighten himself, "why not in a bigger room?"
This time he was met with no resistance and he stood up to his full height, rolling his shoulders slowly, shooting Kiba another glare. The brunette stared back, blankly, a hint of exasperation sparking in his dark-brown eyes.
"Because I had to get to you as soon as you came in, because in case you've forgotten, when you ditched us at Neji's you left us to deal with not only Sai, but also a "certain someone"," Kiba hissed, "And that "certain someone" has been chilling at Neji's and getting more pissed by the day."
Naruto stared at his friend, eyes wide with realization; He had forgotten. Somehow, his brain had pushed out the memory of the humanoid. He had spent all weekend practically tormenting himself, remembering every detail with tortuous lucidity- except the humanoid.
Naruto heard himself ask, voice barely above a whisper, "Why is he getting pissed?"
Kiba clicked his tongue impatiently, shifting his weight to the right, "because of you, idiot- Because we couldn't find you."
Naruto didn't know if it was his explosive break-up with Sai that had emotionally drained him, or if it was the weekend long pity-party he had thrown for himself, but he couldn't force himself to panic.
The bell had rung a few seconds after Kiba had delivered his catastrophic statement of, "-Because we couldn't find you" and though they had tried to leave as inconspicuously as possible, they had still managed to attract a few lecherous grins and winks from passing students as they exited the closet together, cheeks warm from the heat.
As they walked through the slowly filling hallway, Naruto urged himself to feel panicked- Or anything akin to panic. From what Kiba had told him, Naruto had every right to be! The raven had apparently been getting more and more anxious and angry as the days passed without word from Naruto, and, as Kiba had explained, the humanoid's good looks had managed to rope all the girls in the group into being on his side, so there was a good chance the girls had already told the raven Naruto's schedule.
But all he could feel was an aching nervousness, the kind that you get when you're waiting for someone at the airport.
"-and that could be the plan?"
Naruto blinked, snapping out of his trance, catching the very last line of Kiba's apparent "plan". Amused, Naruto cocked an eyebrow, wondering if the brunette had been talking the entire time.
"What?" Naruto asked, clueless.
Kiba stopped in his tracks, giving Naruto an exasperated, disbelieving look that told Naruto that, yes; he had been talking the entire time.
"You really weren't listening? That entire time, I was piecing together the most complex of plans; all to save your ass- quite literally- and you're not even listening?" Kiba crossed his arms, narrowing dark eyes at Naruto's apologetic smile.
"I was spacing out!" Naruto offered up, shrugging, throwing his arms behind his head.
The flow of students in the hallway intensified as the time to get to class shortened, and after getting bumped into for the third time, Kiba reluctantly began to move forward and out of the way. Naruto huffed out a breath of laughter at Kiba's betrayed glare and pouted apologetically (mostly to make Kiba laugh) but when Naruto did, Kiba's eyes widened, any hint of a glare slipping off of his face.
Realizing his mistake, Naruto dropped the pout, instantly turning straight ahead, continuing to walk forward, leaving his frozen friend behind him.
"Come on, we should get to class." He said lightly, trying desperately to keep Kiba from saying anything.
"Whoa, whoa, Uzumaki, Hold the fuck up." Kiba's voice rang out, clear as a bell.
Peeking over his shoulder, Naruto inwardly wailed. Kiba stood behind him, forgetting all about the people trying to move around them as they stood in the middle of the hallway. Kiba's hand shot forward, grabbing Naruto's forearm sternly, giving Naruto an insistent tug. Sighing, Naruto allowed himself to be pulled back, glancing apologetically around them to the students who squeezed by, annoyed. Facing Kiba, Naruto kept his head down, staring at their shoes.
"Come on, we're in the middle of the hallway." Naruto mumbled, trying to coax the angry brunette into moving off to the side.
"I don't give a damn where we are; let me see your face." Kiba barked.
Rolling his eyes, Naruto looked up, eyes focused anywhere but on Kiba's face, not wanting to see his best friend's reaction. And from the way Kiba's grip on Naruto's arm tightened, it wasn't a good one.
He knew what Kiba was seeing; the skin around his right eye had darkened to a purple, the cut on his bottom lip healing, but still blood-red. Naruto had looked like this many times before (he wasn't one to back down from a fight) but something about this time made it different, more extreme.
"How did I not notice before?" Kiba fumed, mainly to himself, voice guilt-ridden.
Naruto shrugged, running his free hand through his hair, "we were in that closet, even I couldn't see anything. Look, it's not a big deal; I got kicked in the face, what was I supposed to do, not bruise? And besides, I kinda got him back for it."
With this statement, Naruto released his left arm from Kiba's tight grip and held up his fist, displaying his split knuckles proudly.
"After getting hit with this," Naruto raised his fist, "the bastard shouldn't be looking too pretty either."
Kiba watched Naruto's face closely, trying to sense any hint of falseness. Seeing none, Kiba looked at the reassuring smile on the blonde's lips and sighed, shaking his head.
"Nice survival skills, Uzumaki; you can't even dodge getting kicked in the face and when I try to make plans for your survival, you space out."
Naruto smiled at Kiba, not minding the insult in his relief that the brunette wasn't going to go on a rampage.
"Hey, that's why I've got you here."
And even though Kiba rolled his eyes, Naruto could tell he was pleased.
A few minute later, things were back to normal including Kiba and his crazy plans.
Frowning, Naruto interrupted, "I don't really see why we have to make a plan? Can't I just be like, "hey, sorry, not interested"?"
Kiba looked at Naruto, then back to the floor as they walked, biting the inside of his cheek in concentration. Then, as they took a right, turning into the hallway where their first hour was, he finally shook his head slowly.
"I don't think so, man; maybe with some Humanoids, but not this one."
They slowed their pace as they neared the classroom. Kiba bit his lip, one abnormally sharp canine poking out over his lip,
"He's just…different. You should've seen him; it was like we couldn't distract him from the thought of you for one second. We were all there, and you know how overbearing we can be when we all get together, but he wasn't even fazed. He was like, distracted the entire time."
They had slowed to a stop by the end of this explanation. Standing there in the hallway, a few doors away from where the humanoid possibly was, Naruto felt his first spark of panic.
"How much do you think he saw?" Naruto asked, gesturing to his bruised face.
Kiba's dark eyes flickered to his face, lingering over the injuries, his jaw clenching. Taking a deep breathe, Kiba shrugged, shaking his head,
"I don't think he saw much at all. Said that all he could remember were your eyes." Kiba stared to their right at the open door of their first hour class, English. "I'll go in there first, and then you can follow. If I spot him, I'll give a bird-call or something."
Naruto snorted, agreeing mainly to humor Kiba. Naruto watched him walk in, and then leaned against the lockers, listening. As he listened for whatever bird-call Kiba would choose, the feeling of panic slowly began to creep up Naruto's spine.
'Come on, we'll just go in there. Kiba hasn't given the call, so he's not in there. If we ever see him, we'll just tell him, "no thank you", and that'll be the end of it.' He mentally coached himself.
Sighing, Naruto grabbed the straps of his book sack, steeling himself for the onslaught of questions that would be thrown at him by his friends. He walked to the door and stepped in.
And for the second time, onyx and cobalt eyes met.
Naruto's heart skipped a beat-whether from surprise or something else, he couldn't tell- and in that moment of waiting for his heart to start back up, Naruto was able to make a few observations.
First of all, the raven in front of him had definitely looked older in the box plus somehow more robotic. But here, under the fluorescent lights, he looked the same age as Naruto, and just as human.
Second, his expression had changed upon having seen Naruto. Before he'd spotted the blonde, he'd been leaning against a desk, scowling, watching Naruto's classmates with disdain. But, catching sight of Naruto, his pink lips had loosened into a smirk and he had risen from the desk in a fluid, graceful movement.
And third, Sakura was sitting on the desk behind the raven, hand clutched over Kiba's mouth, waving at Naruto with her free hand.
All this, he noticed in a bare minimum of five seconds. Then, he had no more time to think, because the raven was in front of him, one hand grabbing Naruto's waist- pulling him towards the humanoid's chest- the other sliding down the side of Naruto's thigh (the movement strangely sensual) and hooking his fingers behind Naruto's knee, propped Naruto's leg around his waist, like he was about to dip the blonde.
For a few seconds, all Naruto could do was stare at the man's lips, his heart in his throat. His mouth opened and closed, searching for something to say, but all he could do was gape. He had kissed those lips. He had wished those lips could kiss back. Then those lips began to move as the humanoid began to talk.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and you better remember that," Looking down at him, Sasuke smirked, "because you'll be screaming it later."