A spit ball went flying through the air and landed on the back of a pale neck with a dull, wet thud. Sasuke Uchiha's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as he wiped the saliva-soaked piece of paper from his neck and spun around in his seat to glare at the blonde sitting a row behind him –on a perfect angle for spit-balling.
"What's the answer to question four?" Naruto hissed in what he believed was a low tone –unknowing that his teacher was very aware of what was going on, and promptly ignoring it.
"Do it yourself, moron," Sasuke muttered back, turning back to the questions in his physics textbook. How was it even possible that the idiot was only up to question four? They only had to do the even numbers, for fuck's sake.
"You're so mean!" Naruto whinged; loud enough for the people on either side of him –Choji and Shino (he'd been separated from Kiba for a reason) –to hear him. They rolled their eyes and Naruto saw Kiba sniggering from across the classroom. Quickly, he lined up another spit-ball, but that was when a paper plane landed on his desk. He looked up in astonishment to catch Sasuke turning back to his work with a roll of his eyes.
Hurriedly, he unfolded the paper and his mouth fell open. It was the page from the physics textbook they were working in. Sasuke apparently did his working on the edges, and though he hadn't left any answers for Naruto, he'd left the working.
Figure it out yourself, idiot, was scrawled at the bottom of the page. The blonde chuckled to himself and then pouted playfully.
"Bastard," he grumbled flatly, to which everyone who was present, swore on their lives that they heard Sasuke laugh. Of course, no one else believed them.
When the bell rang for lunch, Naruto caught up with Sasuke while he was getting his bag.
"Hey bastard, wanna come sit with us today?" he inquired conversationally, "We're gonna shoot some hoops up on the court?"
"We have biology homework," Sasuke pointed out coldly.
" –That's due tomorrow," Naruto reminded him; waving away the excuse flamboyantly.
"I'm not letting you copy."
"Well fine," he sniffed, "…I'll just copy from Shikamaru. Come play. It'll be fun."
"I doubt that," Sasuke snorted haughtily as he shouldered his bag, but Naruto was already dragging him by the sleeve over to where Shikamaru and Kiba were waiting for him.
" –Sasuke's coming with," he informed them in what he hoped didn't sound like a triumphant kind of tone. He was determined to show the rest of them that he could be nice to Sasuke; and that Sasuke was in fact, worth being nice to.
"I'm not," Sasuke assured the other two, who just exchanged glances and shrugged, making no move to help him as Naruto started chirping on about classes earlier that morning. At some point, he released Sasuke's sleeve, and failed to notice that despite no longer being dragged along 'against his will', the Uchiha was following them up to the basketball courts where some of their other friends were waiting.
"I wasn't expecting to see you here, Uchiha," Neji Hyuuga remarked in a tone equally as haughty as Sasuke's usual voice.
"I wasn't intending to be," the raven deadpanned, sounding thoroughly unenthusiastic, "I didn't know you played basketball too, Hyuuga."
"I earned first string in both soccer and basketball, but I had to choose just one," Neji shrugged simply, in that boasting-yet-merely-stating-a-fact manner that he seemed to have about him.
"Yeah, yeah, you're a prodigy, Neji," Shikamaru sighed heavily with a roll of his eyes as the Hyuuga continued running drills with Kankuro and Tenten, both of whom played for their school teams.
"Three on three?" Naruto offered as he spied Kankuro's little brother, Gaara, heading on over post art class; apparently covered in the remnants of clay. "Uhh…Gaara, what happened?"
"Deidara," Gaara replied flatly, tugging some still-moist clay from his vibrant, red hair, "…He started a clay fight." Naruto burst out laughing – which Gaara did not find amusing. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the blonde's overbearing laugh and shifted his weight impatiently.
"Oh yeah…um…Sasuke –team up with Kiba and Gaara while I steal Shikamaru's biology homework, will you?" Naruto chuckled awkwardly.
"Sweet, we got Uchiha," Kiba chortled as Sasuke let out an annoyed growl and slung his bag down next to where Naruto sat beside Shikamaru –who really couldn't be bothered playing.
" –Careful, Inuzuka; Uchiha's more suited to dribbling with his feet than his hands," Neji reminded him almost tauntingly as Sasuke and Kiba both pulled off their school polo shirts to stretch a little in their singlets.
"I'm sure the Hyuuga is most adept at handling balls in every which way," Gaara remarked in his staunch tone, a smirk twitching on his lips as everyone present began sniggering –apart from Neji, who just replied with, "Of course. People tell me I have very deft and skilful hands."
"I…I'm sure they do…" Kiba stammered, unsuccessfully hiding his chuckles behind his fingers. Neji frowned and looked at Tenten for explanation.
"It's a testicle reference, Neji," she informed him; biting her lip and trying not to laugh at him as his expression darkened and cheeks turned pink. His pale eyes turned to the redhead.
"Sabaku, you're going down."
"…Oh please, Hyuuga, at least take me out to dinner first." This time everyone (sans Sasuke and Neji) burst out laughing, and this time, Neji got the reference and glared even harder, bouncing the ball almost violently.
"If that's how you handle all balls, I don't think I'm going to li–" Gaara remarked with a smirk, but that was all he managed to get out before Neji started up the game –hoping to avoid any more sexual connotations flung his way.
" –What's the deal, Naruto?" Shikamaru inquired with a yawn as the blonde rifled around in his bag for the homework to copy, "Sasuke Uchiha?" He nodded pointedly to where the raven had immediately managed to steal from Neji and was apparently proving that soccer wasn't all he was good at.
"I just thought…" Naruto mumbled, "…Uhh, he doesn't really hang out with people…and we hung out yesterday, and he's…he's kind of okay?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this. "Like, you should see him playing air hockey –jeez it made me mad; I just couldn't beat him! And did you see in physics today; he gave me the answers…well, not the answers –just the working, but that meant I could figure it out…and he keeps calling me an idiot, which is really annoying and –"
Shikamaru was suddenly reminded of how much Naruto seemed to enjoy the sound of his own voice.
And apparently he also enjoyed the sound of his voice relaying a long list of details relating to Sasuke. Shikamaru had always known that in a rivalry and an 'I have to beat him in everything' kind of sense, Naruto had always had Sasuke on the brain…but all of a sudden, it was all he could talk about.
'He's so fucking good at three-pointers –just like his stupid slide-tackles', 'did you know he got like a ninety-six on our last maths test?' 'Can you believe he doesn't like ice cream?' He was amazed with how much information Naruto could spit out in the fifteen minutes it took for him to copy out their homework.
"Yo, Kiba," Shikamaru waved him over as Naruto immediately changed train of thought and began watching the game, itching to play. Kiba jogged over, kicking Naruto onto his face and flicking sweat onto him.
"Fuck you're gross," Naruto joked, tearing off his shirt and darting out into the game, quickly intercepting a pass between Kankuro and Neji. With a whoop, he darted off down the court; blasting past Tenten and scoring. As the other team yelled at him for cheating, he just stuck out his tongue and struck a pose. Neji promptly bounced the ball off his head and restarted.
"Pity we're not on opposite teams, bastard," Naruto chuckled; companionably elbowing Sasuke in the ribs as he passed, "I'd completely crush you." Sasuke wiped the sweat off his brow –it was a hot day –and smirked.
" –Bet I can score more points than you," the Uchiha commented lightly. Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the challenge and his face broke out into a grin as Sasuke stalked past him; roughly shoving him with his shoulder daringly.
"Oh here we go…" Shikamaru sighed, facepalming.
"You're on, bastard."
Itachi tapped his pencil on his desk irritably as he stared distractedly at the half-solved calculus problem laid out before him. He'd made an effort at it but for some reason, the maths wasn't coming to him. He sighed heavily and ran a hand through his bangs. A quick glance at the clock informed him that it was almost the end of lunch. Crap, he was meant to grab lunch with Kisame at the mall…
Well, at least he'd gotten a couple of…
Ok maybe he'd gotten two questions done….
Kisame pushed open the door to the study room in the library where he was almost certain Itachi had holed himself up during lunchtime –probably to hide from Hidan and Deidara. The pair of them were being particularly obnoxious today; especially since Deidara had snuck some clay out of his art class and had decided to use it in the quad to start a food fight.
As predicted, Itachi was sitting at his desk, and barely looked up as he entered.
"Itachi, we have class," he informed him, making no mention of the fact that he had missed their standing lunch plans. With a sigh, Itachi stood and began gathering things up. For perhaps the first time in their friendship, Kisame actually felt a little awkward and wondered if he should say something.
"Um…Itachi?" he queried.
"Mmm?" the raven replied; looking up briefly and then back down to his calculus books. Kisame scratched the back of his head and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Kisame, quit fidgeting." His dark eyes flicked up once more, "If you have something to say, then say it. It's unlike you to hesitate."
" –Well," Kisame coughed and then sighed. He might as well say something. Whether or not Hidan had gotten to him first was irrelevant. Itachi was his best friend; he should probably tell him. "I don't know if…if you'd heard from Hidan…but uhh…" He shrugged helplessly, "…And I should've told you first –or earlier, or something, but I'm…gay." There was a long pause as Kisame snuck a questioning look up at the raven.
"I see," Itachi responded coolly and brushed past him. Kisame rolled his eyes.
"Itachi don't be like that," he grumbled, stalking after him and catching up to the raven on the stairs, "Are you mad?"
"Why should I be mad?" he replied calmly, "It's yours to tell."
"I don't know; mad that I didn't tell you? You sound mad."
"I do not sound mad," he sniffed; his brow furrowing slightly this time. Kisame snorted. "Kisame, I am not mad. I'm just disappointed." Kisame groaned and facepalmed. That was so much worse.
"Please be mad," he complained, "Your disappointed voice is the worst…" He actually got a bit of a smile out of the Uchiha at that –but it was gone in a flash as they reached the door to the library. The building was clearing out since class was starting soon. "Are you disappointed I didn't tell you sooner? Because in all fairness; you never asked."
"That's not it," Itachi assured him, "I'm just disappointed that I was informed of my supposed best friend's sexuality by Hidan yelling 'Kisame's into fucking dudes' in my ear pre-coffee this morning and then informing me that you had already done such things."
"Oh don't play the 'supposed best friend' card," Kisame rolled his eyes, "You never asked, so I assumed you weren't bothered either way –fuck, he told you everything?"
"In graphic detail, which I presume was greatly exaggerated and none of which you actually told him," Itachi replied with a small laugh. Kisame grinned toothily. "Truly, Kisame, I'm not mad. I was just…surprised."
"So you're not bothered by it?" he inquired tentatively.
" –I really think that with Hidan and Deidara as friends, it's rather difficult to be bothered by anything these days," Itachi deadpanned and Kisame broke out into barks of laughter. "Although I do confess, when Hidan said that to me, I assumed it was some kind of joke."
"Did you play along? Did he make any anal jokes –coz I told him not to," Kisame sighed heavily. "Did he use the 'well that takes the –'"
"Well that takes the no-homo out of Kisame fucking you in the ass –yes, he used that line," Itachi replied; his face widening into a smile –that was, until they stepped out of the library and straight into a swarm of Itachi Uchiha fangirls.
"I…uhh…" Itachi stammered in a low tone, causing Kisame to actually stare at him. Itachi never stuttered. "I'm glad you told me, Kisame. I apologise for missing lunch. I was…distracted."
"Glad to know you're thinking of me," Kisame laughed, seeing another of those rare Itachi-smiles gracing the Uchiha's face as he looked up at his tall friend. For a moment, the raven looked slightly guilty, but it was gone in an instant; leaving only that smile on his face. The girls all cooed in excitement –none of them had ever managed to get Itachi to smile like that at them.
"Are you cool with this?" he just had to ask; just to check –because it had to be strange to find out that your straight best friend wasn't actually straight. Itachi did look a little more…stunned…than he usually did. Maybe he was just trying to comprehend it? But, at least they were still walking arm-to-arm through the throng of females as they always had.
"Would I still be here if I wasn't?" Itachi rolled his eyes, "Though if you ever date Hidan or Deidara I must admit that I do not support that. They'd be borderline unbearable, and I don't want to hear details about your dick in another man's ass."
"I'm very, very pleased that you assume I top," Kisame remarked with a smirk.
"Please, I do give you some credit," he snorted with a small smile. "Some."
" –And don't worry, I would never go for them. Not my type," he assured him with a shrug.
"Oh? And what is your type?" Itachi inquired lightly.
" –Definitely short, scrawny nerds with black hair," Kisame joked, looking down pointedly on his friend.
At his words, Itachi promptly stumbled and nearly went reeling forwards into the sea of beasts. Only Kisame's grip across his chest prevented him from completely face-planting in a most un-Uchiha-esque fashion.
"Sorry," he apologised, "Too soon for jokes?"
" –I am not a nerd," Itachi snapped flatly, "I just care about what college I get into! And I'm not scrawny; I have an incredibly low percentage of body fat –the rest is muscle."
"And bone," Kisame snorted, pulling him back to his feet, "I'm the muscle here, remember?" To prove his point, he simply raised his hands up and the women around them all backed off.
"…If that's what you like to think…" Itachi sniffed, sticking his nose in the air, but laughing under his breath as the pair of them wandered off to class.
" –Ladies, would you please?" Kisame growled at them as he shooed them away. "Even you…yeah go on; two metre radius –you guys know the drill by now…" He grinned over at his friend; glad that Itachi was taking this news well –despite the crude manner in which he'd been introduced to it. Itachi just smirked back with a small nod as they walked side-by-side towards class.
"Thank you, Kisame," Itachi added, with a nod back to the crowd of girls that was falling behind as they peeled off on the way to their own classes.
"No problem," he shrugged, "What would you do without me?"
Itachi just smiled quietly to himself and didn't answer.
Naruto let out a groan of frustration as Sasuke successfully blocked yet another one of his shots at goal and tossed the ball back to him for another humiliating attempt.
"How the hell did you manage to get to the first string with a kick like that?" the raven goaded.
"Hey, shut up!" Naruto snapped, unable to come up with a better comeback since he was trying to figure out the best way to get the ball past Sasuke's guard. He didn't play goalie too much, but he was still damn good at it.
Currently, he was covered in grass stains and dirt. Soccer practice had run a bit longer than usual, and he'd been so amped to play against Sasuke after that he'd gotten a bit carried away on the slide tackles. He was panting and sweating, but he didn't even care. During practice, the pair of them had been on opposite teams and (having lost the basketball challenge at lunchtime) he was determined to show him up.
Thankfully for all spectating parties, the game had ended in a tie –and now Naruto was trying to prove again that he was better by getting past Sasuke's guard. He was failing.
He pulled his shirt up to wipe his face and as it fell, he noticed that Sasuke appeared kind of distracted. Taking his chance, he shot into gear, racing straight for the goal. Sasuke jolted into action at the same time that Naruto went to shoot…
Result: their feet caught the ball between them and they both went tumbling forwards, Naruto, with the attacking force, toppling straight forwards on top of Sasuke. They landed in a pile of sweaty limbs in the grass.
"Ow…get off, moron…" Sasuke snapped. Naruto just held his face down for a moment as he looked up with blue eyes full of hope. To his enormous delight, the ball had continued rolling right into the goal. Triumphantly, he sat back on his haunches and leered down at the raven underneath him.
"I win!" he proclaimed.
"Tch, one goal in against like a hundred I saved," Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Get off me." Naruto suddenly seemed to realise that he was perched practically in the Uchiha's lap, but decided to make the most of having the higher ground.
"Say I win," he demanded.
"What are you, a child?" Sasuke snorted.
" –Say it, or I'm not getting off."
"Fine –" Sasuke growled, before savagely grabbing him and rolling the pair of them until he was hovering over Naruto, "I win."
"Bastard!"
Itachi could hear the squabbling from half a field away. He facepalmed heavily and Deidara looked at him quizzically.
" –What's the face for, Itachi, yeah?" he inquired, "Is this about Hidan telling you about Kisame, coz I told him to say sorry, yeah…but Kisame chucked him in a dumpster anyway –not like a big one but…"
"No, it's my little brother," Itachi pointed into the distance to where he could see a pair of teenage boys wrestling in the grass –soccer ball forgotten, "He's obviously forgotten what time I was finishing work…"
"Who's the kid?" Deidara inquired; squinting.
"Probably Naruto," the raven replied with a shrug, "He's the only person Sasuke would be willingly spending time with, I believe."
" –Your brother has problems, yeah," Deidara deadpanned. Itachi shrugged.
"I may be inclined to agree," he admitted, "Sasuke's been warring with Naruto Uzumaki for years now. He'd always come home complaining about him or something –talking about this Naruto kid who pissed him off." Itachi chuckled, "But…" He nodded over to the pair of them as he and Deidara drew up to the goal and watched the fight in amusement. "…I think he secretly enjoys it."
Naruto and Sasuke were fighting on the ground –each trying to force the other back to the ground. Their clothes were riddled with grass stains and there were obviously dirty tactics such as hair-pulling and tickling going on. Naruto was swearing, but he was laughing.
And Sasuke was grinning.
"…I've never seen your brother smile like that before, yeah," Deidara commented with a raised eyebrow. Itachi just shrugged.
"I noticed it a few years ago," he admitted, "He'd never admit it, but there's only one person that can make him smile like that." Deidara looked down at the smiling younger Uchiha yelling obscenities at the giggling blonde, and then across at Itachi, who appeared rather amused by the horseplay.
"You know, Itachi…in that respect, you and Sasuke sure are a lot alike, yeah."
Meanwhile, Shikamaru and Kiba were sitting on the roof of one of the nearby classrooms. Shikamaru was Naruto's ride home, and he'd dragged Kiba along to amuse him until Naruto finished up whatever was going on down there with Sasuke.
"Isn't this kinda weird?" Kiba inquired curiously.
"Are you spying?" Shikamaru sighed.
"Of course I am," he scoffed, "This is Naruto, and this is Sasuke, and this is weird –like seriously. Are you a wizard? What the hell did you do?"
"What are you talking about?" he shrugged.
" –You know exactly what I'm talking about," Kiba sniffed, "A week ago, Naruto would be strangling Sasuke instead of play-fighting with him. He brought him to play basketball with us today. We beat Neji. That never happens. And did you hear –"
"Yeah, I heard," Shikamaru replied lazily, "Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, right?"
"Yeah –so explain! I know you've got something to do with it," he snorted. Shikamaru just glanced at him sideways with a small smirk and shrugged noncommittally.
"All I did was tell him what he'd never noticed before," he replied with a yawn, "Really; that's all I did. He was just so focused on his little rivalry that he didn't see it. And now that it's been pointed out, he's going to notice it. How he interprets all that is completely up to him."
"So you pointed out good things about Sasuke…and now he starts to see them, and more?" Kiba frowned.
"Something like that," he shrugged, "It was just kind of planting the idea that Sasuke was a good dude that Naruto never got the chance to know…and Naruto's completely run with it."
"I hope I never cross you," Kiba informed him in a deadly serious tone, "Dude, I think you could destroy me."
"…It'd be too troublesome," he yawned again, " –So now, Naruto's mind is just completely filled with Sasuke in some way." He nodded down to the field where it appeared that the two of them were struggling against each other still.
"It's pretty sudden though," Kiba frowned, scratching his head in confusion, "Sudden friendship, I mean. And I really didn't think Sasuke would go for it, you know?" Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Had Kiba actually registered anything they'd been saying in Naruto's hearing?
" –Naruto never half-asses things," he chuckled, "And we don't give him enough credit –he's very observant."
"…You totally took advantage of that, right?" he queried with a groan, "…He's going to start thinking the sun shines out Sasuke's ass!"
"Not quite," he mused, almost to himself, "He's not blind. He just wasn't looking before. I may have…opened his eyes to the possibility of him and Sasuke being friends. He seems pretty set on it…"
" –But he thinks Sasuke likes him," Kiba pointed out with a sigh, "Wouldn't he think that he's leading him on or something?"
All of a sudden, as Shikamaru looked up, he watched with a raised eyebrow as Sasuke and Naruto, who had been yanked on the backs of each other's heads, both let go. Their faces went snapping forwards and connected violently.
Panic rose up in Naruto's gut as he suddenly realised that their mouths had been slammed together. Sasuke's lips were chapped but soft –and he did not like that he had realised that. Almost as a weird kind of reflex, his tongue flicked out from between his lips and ever so softly touched the edge of Sasuke's lower lip.
Horrified at himself, he tore backwards, the back of his hand pressed tightly to his mouth as he became truly aware of how he was once again straddling Sasuke's hips. He swallowed nervously, and looked up in embarrassment to see that Sasuke's brother and his friend were watching from the soccer goal nearby.
"Oh how cute," Itachi remarked lightly, "I get to witness my baby brother's first kiss!"
"Shut up, Itachi!" Sasuke snarled aggressively, ears turning pink as he shoved the stunned Naruto off him and rolled ungainly to his feet. Naruto coughed awkwardly as he wiped his mouth; cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "That wasn't a kiss!"
"Oh yes, I must have missed the part where you were unconscious and he was giving you mouth-to-mouth," Itachi commented dryly, earning a vicious glare from Sasuke, "Come along, little brother; sorry to interrupt, but we have to get home."
"Tch," Sasuke scoffed, and then looked back over his shoulder, "Later, moron."
"B-Bastard!" Naruto stammered and then averted his eyes when he realised it hadn't come out with as much bite as he had wanted. He quickly headed over to grab his things. "Uhh…you did good today," he added lamely as a parting compliment. He heard Sasuke snigger, and then, quietly, he heard the reply.
"…You too."
Naruto let out a short breath and with a wave to conceal his embarrassment, began heading back towards the school. Jeez, what the hell…why did that have to happen? And tongue, what the fuck –stay in mouth! He was blushing like crazy and wasn't really sure why. A kiss was just a kiss right -no matter who it was from, right? And that wasn't even really a kiss...Just a...uh...
His heart was thudding in his chest, but he told himself that that was just adrenaline from the wrestling and the fact they'd been exercising. And his palms…well, they were sweaty…but they'd been doing sports –all of him was sweaty…
But nothing explained why his stomach was suddenly doing backflips, or why lips were tingling so much.
"He's not all that observant when it comes to himself," Shikamaru shrugged, stretching as he decided that it was about time to get off the roof. "He wouldn't see it as leading him on. He's just being friendly. At least, that's probably what he's telling himself."
"That looked a bit more than 'friendly'," Kiba pointed out. Shikamaru chuckled to himself. "Shikamaru, do you know something? What the hell? Did you do something else?" Shikamaru just shrugged noncommittally as the pair of them stood up; seeing Naruto trudging across the field towards them.
"Everything's happening so fast and there's so much for him to take in," he commented, his voice sounding every-so-slightly sly, "He's got so much running through his head and such -trying to be friends with the guy, whilst simultaneously thinking about Sasuke's 'feelings for him' and how to deal with them..." He looked down, and even from up on the roof, he could see that Naruto was blushing up to his ears and apparently muttering under his breath.
"He probably hasn't had time to think about how he really feels about Sasuke."
And on that note, there is the end of this chapter! In the next one, we finally see Valentine's Day! What's going to happen! What's Naruto decided to write for his valentine? What's Shikamaru talking about? Was there something more to his plan after all? Sorry about the lack of Hidan and Deidara antics in this chapter!
It's moving along fast, I know, but when Naruto sets his mind to something, he gives it his all, right?
Also, I think I love sexual-joke-Gaara.
To all reviewers; I LOVE YOU. I love you all, so much! Actually, I love all readers too. You guys are what keep me writing, so thank you all so much for letting me share what I love, with you all!
Next chapter soon, promise.
xx K