I don't own Naruto.

Imagine me without You
0.03

Naruto smirked; sweat dropping from his head, running down in his face. Kiba and a few others stood in front of him, his friend had the same exhausted look as him. Heavy breaths were heard in the room.

"Ready to loose?" Kiba asked with a grin when he bended his body back and threw a ball up in the air.

Naruto took a position, ready to jump and hit back the volleyball when it would come. "Don't think too high about yourself, dog-boy."

Kiba made a sound when he the ball collided with his hand, the ball headed towards Naruto just like planed. Naruto jumped, ready to hit back, but- fate was cruel. The room suddenly went black and he couldn't see, so instead of hitting the ball, the ball hit him in the face and he fell down on the floor. He groaned out in pain when he came down hard.

Nobody seemed to have noticed the blonde boy's cruel fate; they were all whispering their thoughts out of why the electricity suddenly had gone out.

Their P.E teacher, Gai Maito, was quick to react and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention and, to let them know where he was.

"Seems like we will have to end this spirited game for today and move on to our sanctuary! Come on! Move it! Move it!" He clapped his hands again and every boy in the room made their way to their 'sanctuary', or what normal people would call it; 'the changing room'.

Nobody cared to change when they reached the changing room, the water wouldn't work anyway. Gai informed them all that he would be leaving to see what had caused the school to go all black and said that he would return as soon as possible.

Kiba was quick to open his locker and gather his things, Naruto watched him with a curious eye. When the brown-haired boy had finally closed the locker he found Naruto staring at him through the dark and grunted out a 'what?'.

"You leaving?" The blonde asked. The brown-head nodded. "But we have lunch after this and classes too. Where are you going?"

His friend closed his bag and threw it over his shoulder before answering. "The mall. Me and Shan had planned to go around this time anyway, so this situation just makes it all better." Kiba flashed Naruto a grin. "We can ninja in the dark or something now to get out, you coming blondie?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and smashed his own locker open to get his normal clothes out. He could change somewhere at the mall.

The both of them leaved the 'sanctuary' and guided themselves through the halls with the lights coming from their cell phones.

When they saw the doors to the outside, a flash of light hit their eyes and the both teenagers covered their eyes. Caught, that was what they were.

"And you two are going, where?" A stern voice asked the two of them. The light from the flash lamp leaved their eyes to adjust to darkness again.

Naruto had a hard time to concentrate, but Kiba didn't seem to have a problem with the situation. The brown-haired one grinned, trying to use his charm, if he now had one.

"Mr.S! I know this may sound stupid, but my mother just called me to tell that I should pick up my two beloved little twin sister, they seem to be sick and my mother can't leave her job." Naruto wanted to puke at all the drama Kiba had put into his voice and movements. Sasuke just wanted to hit his own forehead with the flash lamp he was holding, but he held his emotions inside and instead raised an eyebrow at the drama-boy.

"And you are the caring brother I guess?" The teacher asked sarcastic. "Nice try, but the connection to the cell phones doesn't wo-"

"Thanks for understanding Mr.S!" Somehow, Kiba had managed to walk right by Sasuke, without him noticing and straight to where the doors were and smashed them closed after he had screamed his thanks to his history teacher.

"-rk right now…" The teacher finished his sentence. He gritted his teeth but remained calm as he turned to the blonde boy who had been with Kiba.

"And you?" He hadn't meant to glare, but he just couldn't help himself.

Naruto raised both of his hands in defence and let a small laugh out. He was going to kill Kiba, painfully.

"Uhm…" The blonde said unsure. "An apology and then right back to, eh, class?" He smiled a little unsure.

Sasuke sighed, his shoulder sagged. Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, and Naruto let his hands fall down to his sides. The blonde looked up at the older one, not knowing if he should just leave or wait until Sasuke had something to say.

"I don't care if you leave or not." The teacher whispered out. Naruto's eyes widened, not sure if he had heard right. Normally, a teacher would just give him a cold eye and tell him to get straight back to class, not that he really had one at the moment, but still.

"If you feel like messing around with your future, then go ahead. My job is just here to warn you."

Naruto held his breath as Sasuke walked by him. His head was blank for a moment, walking to the doors without knowing he was actually moving. When he opened the door, he looked back to see that the flashlight was not moving, meaning that Sasuke stood still and was probably watching the blonde leave.

And that was just what the blond did; he walked outside and to the parking lot. He closed the door to Shan's car and the said boy gave him a smile through the mirror. Kiba turned around in his seat and asked how he had escaped Sasuke.

Naruto threw a glare at his friend and said no more under the whole car ride to the mall.

Apparently, most of the students had left the school grounds that day. The teachers hadn't found the problem to why the electricity had gone out so they had sent all the students home.

Besides that, another week had passed. Naruto and the two brown-heads were currently at a café to relax from a hard week. Naruto kept quite while Kiba and Shan talked about a few random things, family and job mostly.

About the two of them…

Kiba usually takes cares of his two twin sister and his older sister and mother are out working to get the money the family need to get by. He hardly heard them complain, not even Kiba, and Kiba was a person that could complain for hours if he so wanted to.

Shan is luckier. He gets the money he wants in his hands if he so wishes it, his parents is after all one of the riches in this town. But, even if his parents want to spoil him, he doesn't exactly allow it, but he hardly complains when they do. Oh, and he is one year older then both Kiba and him, he started with home schooling at first for a year, but that didn't work out so he started going to a normal school.

For Naruto, well; his parents are dead. His mother's sister took care of him until he requested to move out and live on his own. He said he would be fine; after all, his parents left him with more money then one person really needed. They had had their own company and all when they were alive after all.

A pair of fingers snapped in front of the blonde's eyes. He blinked; now back to reality and scanning his two friends with his blue eyes.

"What?" He asked the two of his friends when they hadn't said anything.

Shan rolled his eyes and Kiba grinned.

"You working today?" Kiba asked with a hint of something that made Naruto shiver for a bit.

Naruto tilted his head to the side, knowing very well that Kiba wanted something. "What do you want?" Answer a question with a question.

"Well…" Kiba slung one arm over the blonde, his eyes wandering over to one of the windows. "I wondered if you wanted to come with me today, when I get my tattoo's that is…" Kiba clicked his tongue and turned to the blonde's stunned face expression.

"You what?" Naruto asked surprisingly, removing himself from Kiba's grip to look his friend straight in the eyes.

Kiba wasn't kidding. Naruto dropped his jaw.

"Cool, huh?" Both boys turned to Shan. "I want to do one too, but I'm not sure on what yet."

Naruto ignored Shan's dreams and pretty boy-smile and turned to Kiba once again.

"Where will the tattoo be?"

Kiba flashed another grin and poked at his cheek. "On my cheeks!"

The blonde's eyes widened and blinked more times than needed at the other. "You crazy? That's not even legal! … Is it?" He turned to look at Shan, hoping that maybe he would get the hint and stop Kiba from this madness.

"Chill, Uzumaki. Let him do what he wants to do. Besides-" He added before Naruto could say anything more. "The things on your cheeks were the ones that inspired him anyway."

Naruto's mouth closed and his eyes fell to the floor. The three scars on each cheek, with time they had healed, but they were still visible for anyone to see.

"Sorry, I can't come with you…" Naruto mumbled out when he grabbed his bag and walked out from the café.

Kiba leaned over the table and smacked Shan hard in the head, "Idiot!".

After Naruto had walked a few blocks, he stopped and touched one of his cheeks. Memories floating in his mind, he wasn't really bothered by them; it was just that he wondered why?

He clenched his other hand into a fist. "Mom…" He whispered out into the cold night.

Next day, Kiba had indeed tattoos on both of his cheeks. They were red triangles, not all too big either and it somehow gave Kiba more character.

Kiba had said it had hurt like hell and that it had been worth it, Naruto couldn't help but agree to that, it was true. If anything, Kiba looked much more alive and playful. Just like the personality he had.

"Guess your mom got pretty mad, huh?" The blonde asked while they walked to their last class for the day, history.

"Nah, not really." Kiba answered truthfully. "She just rolled her eyes and said it was too typical of me to do something like this." He sounded almost bored when he told this, as if he had wished for his mother to react a little more or even scream at him.

The blonde chuckled and put both of his hands behind his head. "Wow, most people would love to have a mom like yours." Naruto winked and pushed his friends with his hips, earning a laugh from his friend.

Suddenly, a blur of air passed them and it was just moments after they heard a loud 'thud' and someone saying 'I'm so sorry!'. Both boys looked at each other with raised eyebrows; they decided to check out what they had missed. After all, it was just around the corner and it was the same direction they had to class.

Sasuke stood with his hand in his hair, trying to calm himself down it seemed. A girl walked away from him with her head bowed down. It didn't take much to both Naruto and Kiba to figure out what had happened.

The dog-boy walked towards his teacher and slung an arm around his shoulders. Sasuke had at first tensed at this, but when he had realized it was Kiba he had thrown the boy a glare, but Kiba had just simply brushed the look off.

"You sure have your ways with the ladies Mr.S." The dog-boy said with a wide smirk gracing his lips.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and removed Kiba's arm. "Whatever." Was all he said.

While Kiba had decided to get friendly with Sasuke, Naruto had decided to pick up the books on the floor and hand them over to Sasuke. The teacher had accepted them and nodded in thanks to him.

Kiba had grabbed both of their arms and dragged them away, doing most of the talking all the way to class.

"Come on Uzumaki!"

"You rarely have been going out since we've been to Toshin!"

"He hasn't been out after that at all…"

Again, he was out to go to a party. This time, not a club though. Now he was going to one of Ino's big parties. He knew that Ino would never invite him, but he was a friend of Shan, so he could come because of that.

In the end, he had decided to go. He was getting a headache with all the rambling on why he should go from his two friends.

When he had arrived on the said day when the party would be, he recognized almost everyone there. Over 80 percent were students from his school, making him wonder if Ino really had any other contacts besides that. But it would be too much to ask something like that out of her.

But nevertheless, he put a smile on his face and a drink in his hand and started to be social with the people. It was a normal party, the drinks, the music, the dances, the complaining neighbors and all the students that tried to get on with each other.

To him, it just seemed like everything was from a script, a script that was used in one of those teenage movies. And he simply played along with it.

It wasn't until around one in the morning he had decided to call it a night. Shan with a very drunk Sakura besides him wanted him to stay longer, but the blonde had declined and walked out from the party before they could protest more.

And Naruto was pretty mad that no bus was driving around this hour, making him walk home. The thought of getting a taxi never crossed his mind even once.

After 15 minutes of walking, he had decided to sit down on a few stairs. His head was pounding and his vision was slightly slurred, he should have taken a glass of water before he had left, he would probably have felt better if he had.

Somehow, his body had relaxed and he was slowly drifting away to the land of dreams. But a hand on his shoulder prevented the boy to fall asleep in the cold morning.

A pair of black eyes was looking at him and Naruto tried his best to make the blurry vision disappear so he could see who it could be more clearly.

"Uzumaki?"

Naruto blinked slowly, finally making out who the person could be. Sasuke crouched down to the same level as the blonde. One of his pale hands was on Naruto's shoulder and he held his dark eyes on the blonde's face.

"Sasu-" While trying to say his teacher's name, Naruto had tried to stand up in the process but failed and fallen right towards the other one. The older quickly grabbed both of Naruto's shoulders and pushed the both of them up at the same time. But even standing, Naruto lost the balance and fell to Sasuke's chest; the Uchiha didn't say anything. The taller just sighed and kept his hands on the blonde's shoulders to make sure he wouldn't fall down.

Naruto didn't get the situation, he just listened to the others heartbeat while he looked out in the dark streets.

"Sasuke." The blonde whispered out after a while.

"Hm?" The Uchiha pushed the other away from his chest so he could look Naruto in the face.

He met his teacher's eyes and smiled. "It's snowing."

Sasuke turned his head slightly to the side and closed his eyes; he let a small chuckle be heard.

Sasuke moved one of his arms to Naruto's waist and slung the blonde's arm over his shoulders. The Uchiha supported the blonde all the way into the building and up into his apartment where he dumped Naruto on the couch.

The first time Naruto had stirred from his sleep was when he had heard a telephone ring. The second time was when he had heard footsteps walking and someone talking, probably to the one who had been calling earlier. It didn't take all too much more to Naruto realize that he weren't in Kansas anymore.

He had sheltered his eyes with his arm when the strong lights from the room had hit him, giving him a headache; he couldn't help but curse slightly under his breath. He opened them a second time and scanned the room before hiding them again. He sure weren't at home nor at Ino's place, then…

He sat up on the couch, he scanned himself up and down to see if something were missing, only his jacked and shoes seemed to be gone but he could live with that. He just hated the fact that he couldn't think clearly of where he could be.

He felt pain rushing to his head; he grabbed it and for the first time got a kick of what his breath must smell like. He needed a toothbrush, stat! Lives might go under if he don't find the nearest bathroom!

His mind jumped again when he saw a familiar face, he calmed down and let all the worries escape him. Sighing, he waved at Sasuke who held a telephone in his hand; the older nodded back. Naruto scanned him up and down without being to obvious about it, holding his head with his hands as if the headache was causing him to wobble his head. He were a bit surprised to see that his teacher didn't sleep in a tuxedo, it's good to know that the older were human like the rest of us and slept in a t-shirt and boxers.

Sasuke said something in another language to the one he was talking to and escaped the living room, only to come back later with a glass of water and two pain killer. The blonde accepted the offer while Sasuke spoke in that other language again and hung up the phone.

The older man sat down on the table while watching Naruto swallowing the pills with the water.

"Questions?" The older one accepted the empty glass and the two of them sat in silent for a few second so that the blonde could catch his thoughts in one place.

Naruto nodded slowly and gave his teacher a confused look. "Where am I and why?"

Sasuke stood up with the empty object in hand. "Where, my place and why,-" He sighed and walked away to what Naruto assumed were the kitchen. "Because you were too drunk to walk home." The blonde followed the older into the kitchen.

"Uhm, thanks?" The blonde said a little unsure.

Sasuke turned around to look the blonde in the eyes; they were silent for a moment before Naruto's stomach started to rumble. The blonde laughed in embarrassment as his cheeks turned red.

Sasuke shook his head in amusement and told the younger boy to sit down. Naruto obeyed and keep quite while Sasuke turned around to look around in the cupboards. Naruto got a little curious on what the other could be doing, but he kept his mouth shut. It was already too awkward for his taste of situation.

He turned surprised when a hot steamed bowl had been put in front of him. The blonde blinked and wanted to poke at an egg that were on a pair of noodles and a few other things as well that seemed to be vegetables.

Yuck.

He grabbed a fork next to him, because he didn't get what the stick-things were for. But if he had looked at Sasuke, he would have seen that he was eating his noodles with them.

Naruto tasted the, whatever it was called, and his eyes immediately lit up with satisfaction. If anything, this tasted like heaven and he had traveled to cloud nine. That's how he felt when he devoured everything in the bowl Sasuke had given him.

Sasuke had stopped eating to look at the boy, afraid that the food would turn into a gigantic ball in the boy's throat and die with eating so fast and hardly chew.

"How did you learn to make this?" Naruto leaned over the table when he had put the bowl down; Sasuke leaned back in his chair.

"When you live in Japan for four years, you learn simple things like Ramen." He kept his own bowl close to him, as if Naruto would jump him and run away with it.

"Oh…" Naruto moved back in his chair. He practical lived on instant Ramen, but never had he tasted something like this.

"When did you live there?" He asked, he was slightly curious to be honest.

"… I started to live there when I was eighteen, five years ago to be exact." It showed that Sasuke didn't really want to talk about it; he knew the look that showed on the others face after all.

Sasuke finished his Ramen and said;

"I'm just going to get dressed, and then I will drive you home." He got both of the bowls on the table and laid them down in the sink before he walked away into another room.

When they had reached Sasuke's car, Naruto couldn't help himself by asking why Sasuke didn't take it to school. The answer he had recived had been that his brother needed it and that he always got it back on the weekends, with that the conversation ended.

Not much more small talk were giving during the ride, they only exchanged directions on how to get to their destination. When they almost had reached Naruto's apartment, the blond had tilted his head a little to the side to look at the driver.

Student,

Teacher

And Strangers.

Those words ran through his mind as he watched Sasuke.

He closed his door and tossed his jacket on the kitchen table, his shoes already removed from his feet's. The blonde walked straight into his bathroom to take a shower.

He stripped off all his clothing and let the hot water touch his face.

It felt weird, a little too weird. Even if they hardly knew each other, Naruto felt like he could tell almost everything to Sasuke. Not that he would, but somehow he felt more comfortable around him then he did with his friends.

Maybe if Sasuke hadn't been older.

Maybe if Sasuke hadn't been a teacher.

Then maybe, the two of them could have been friends.

Naruto opened his blue eyes and sighed.

Just maybes…

To be Continued

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (even if I am a little late)

Not much to say..

Please review!
Love, Snaske.