Chapter 2

Naruto woke up the next morning to a loud drilling sound. He reached for his mobile to check the time. It was 5:56am. He cursed under his breath and covered his head with a pillow. Surely there were some kind of noise disturbance laws in place which made it illegal for the builders to be this loud at such an early hour?

He went to bed quite early last night, his mind blank from staring at the picture of his parents for so long. Grumbling loudly he decided sleeping without earplugs simply won't happen. He absolutely had to get them today. Slowly he got up and sat at the edge of his bed for a few seconds looking around his flat. It was technically a studio. The large room was his kitchen, living room and bedroom in one. Dirty plates and rubbish piled on his desk, his clothes were scattered all over the floor. He could see the tower of washing up in the sink. Not an uncommon sight for a student dwelling, but nonetheless it was slightly gross.

'I was supposed to clean up yesterday…' he noted to himself. He felt a slight pang if guilt at yet another promise of this sort he didn't keep. He stood up quickly. He didn't have any classes today until 10am. That left him with lots of time to clean up. He used the bathroom, changed out of PJs into tracksuits and let out a loud shout of encouragement.

"Let's do this!" He pulled his sleeves back and started tidying up.

A few hours later Naruto was looking around his considerably cleaner flat. Sure, his shirts still weren't folded perfectly (some of them weren't folded at all) but at least they were all in the closet. He washed all the dishes and threw the rubbish out. The flat looked almost pleasant he noted to himself.

He opened the cupboard in order to prepare breakfast. His hand landed on a large cup of ramen but he hesitated. He knew how unhealthy the stuff was, I mean come on! What kind of healthy food would involve adding water to dried noodles and powder?

He retrieved his hand and closed the cupboard. The productive start of the day put him in the kind of mood were you want to improve more, it gave him a nice feeling of satisfaction he hasn't felt in a long while. He turned to his fridge and scanned its contents.

'Gone-off milk, butter, 5 cans of beer, raspberry jam…' he scratched his cheek. Nothing one would consider breakfast material on its own. He looked at the clock on the wall, it was almost 9:25am. He really didn't have the time to go to the shop to buy anything for breakfast before his classes.

Wait. When did he decide to go to his class? Naruto wasn't sure if it ever happened before but somehow it only seemed natural that since he is up and awake he needed to go. He closed the fridge and went to change his clothes, his stomach rumbling in disappointment.

"…" In contrast to yesterday, today Kiba seemed to have been stunned into silence by Naruto's arrival.

"Morning guys!" The blond said cheerfully, a large grin on his face.

"Morning!" his friends answered him as he sat down at his usual spot next to his uncharacteristically silent friend.

"What's up Kiba? You look like you just saw a ghost." Naruto laughed at the dark haired boys face.

"Yeah man, maybe not a ghost but there is some freaky paranormal shit going on with you!" the group laughed at his words. "Morning classes two days in a row? Are you possessed by a demon or something?"

The blond grinned at him.

"Must be a pretty awesome demon, he also made get up before 6 this morning and tidy my flat."

The look on Kiba's face was priceless, Naruto wished he pulled out his phone to snap a picture. Blond's stomach rumbled loudly breaking the silence.

"Man, I'm so hungry… I didn't get a chance to grab breakfast."

"What the hell, how come if you got up so early? You can consume a large ramen in 90 seconds flat." Kiba pointed out.

"Yeah, well I didn't want to eat ramen for breakfast. It's not exactly a breakfast food is it?" Naruto spoke both to his friend and himself. The rest of the group gave him a slightly surprised look. In comparison Kiba's expression seemed to turn blank.

As the class finished the group started leaving the room.

"Do you guys have anything now or should we go to the lounge?" Sakura asked.

"I'm free for 3 hours, let's go relax!" Kiba said enthusiastically which was met with a general approval. He turned to Naruto. "You coming man?"

"Uhh, I actually have a math tutorial now." Naruto suddenly remembered. Even though it was already third week of the semester he hasn't gone to a single one. Anyone with an average grade below 55% in the first semester was required to take tutorials this term. He really should start going if he didn't want to get into trouble.

"I will catch you guys after I'm done." His friends nodded and he headed towards the science part of the building. He entered one of the smaller classrooms and noticed around 15 other students who were already there. He vaguely recognised some of them. There was a girl with long black hair, similar to the guy he saw sparring yesterday. Her name was something like… Hana? Hinata? Naruto wasn't sure. She was tutored by a guy in round sunglasses whose name was Shino. His eyes shifted towards a red spot in the room and he realised it was the guy who handed him the form the day before. Not wanting to stand in the doorway stupidly for any longer he walked towards the teacher supervising the class.

"Your name kid?" A silver haired man didn't even look up from the book he was reading.

"Uh… Naruto Uzumaki."

The teacher glanced at a piece of paper in front of him for a minute and marked Naruto's attendance.

"Your tutor is Gaara. He is the one with red hair. Also, these are for you." He pointed at a small stack of papers on his desk. Naruto stared at him blankly.

"Uh, what are these?" he asked the teacher who already got back to his book.

"Oh, the assignments and exercises you missed so far. Please bring them to Gaara for your tutorial next week."

Blond stared at him. He was going to have assignments for this class? No way. He sighed, grabbed the pile and walked towards the redhead who seemed to be reading a magazine, but looked up as Naruto approached his desk.

"Uhh, hey. I think you are my tutor for this class. I'm Naruto."

"I know." came a short reply and Naruto sat down as Gaara put away his magazine. 'Healthy Living'? Naruto caught a glimpse of the cover. 'How… odd. Do guys our age read these?'

"You skipped two previous weeks." Gaara stared at him.

"Uhh… yeah. I kinda forgot I even had this class, sorry…"Naruto scratched his cheek. He felt bad knowing that the guy was waiting for him, even though he probably would much prefer to be doing anything else but tutoring.

"What was your average?" The redhead ignored Naruto's apology.

"Uh, 43%..." He expected his tutor to sigh but his expression remained as emotionless as ever.

"You need to do all the exercises that you were just given. Is there a particular topic you have trouble with that I should explain?" Naruto shook his head. He wasn't failing because he was stupid, he was just incredibly lazy.

"Good, if you run into a problem you can't do just ask." The redhead went back to reading his magazine, leaving Naruto to his work.

Finally after what seemed like forever the bell rang. Naruto managed to do some of the problems but there were just so many of them… And they were incredibly boring as well. He started packing away his things when Gaara spoke to him again:

"Will you be joining then?"

"Huh?" Naruto blinked at him blankly.

"The club I mean." The redhead clarified.

"Oh, that! Uh, maybe yeah…" Since last night he hasn't really thought about it at all, it was almost surprising how easily he pushed it to the back of his mind. Gaara stared at him for a few seconds.

"You should." He said simply and walked away before Naruto could ask him why did it even matter to the boy if he joined or not.

He collected the rest of his things and headed towards the lounge area. As he walked past the cafeteria his stomach almost turned. He completely forgot how hungry he was! It was definitely time to eat something. He went in to look at the menu. There were of course staple student foods like pizza, chips and burgers. His stomach rumbled appreciatively at the sound of those. Surprisng himself though Naruto decided to order a pasta salad with sun blushed tomatoes, fresh spinach and a bit of parmesan. He had his ordered packed to take away and joined his friends. Ino and Sakura waved at him when they spotted him enter the area.

"How was your tutorial? I'm surprised you even went!" Kiba greeted him between one chip and another.

"Oh man, fuck these tutorials." He pulled out his stack of papers. "I need to do all of these for next week, otherwise they will probably fail me."

"Wow, for real? That sucks Naruto." Ino flicked through the papers. "These are so boring!"

"Tell me about it." The blond sighed before putting his papers away.

"Oh, by the way guys! There is a party on Saturday at my friend's cousin's house. Who's in?" Sakura asked excitedly.

"Awesome, I really need to blow off some steam!" Naruto's mood improved considerably.

"Hell yeah, I'm in as well!" Kiba joined in. "Is your friend hot?"

Sakura and Ino rolled their eyes, there was only one thing Kiba loved more than booze and that was girls. He attempted to hit on both Ino and Sakura at the beginning of college but he was shot down pretty epically.

The girls started teasing their friend about his failed female pursuits and Naruto let himself space out, thinking back to the match he saw yesterday and the rest of his afternoon and the net few days passed uneventfully. His strong resolution to improve lost a bit of its impact, and although his flat remained clean it seemed his clothes migrated back to the floor almost on their own accord. He also only remembered to buy earplugs when it was too late, i.e. when he was awoken rudely before 6am. By Friday he didn't even swear excessively and just got up instead.

He pulled himself together that week and by Saturday morning he somehow managed to finish all the math exercises that he was set. He also caught a few glimpses of the short haired guy around college during the week, and it seemed to Naruto that their eyes always locked for at least a brief moment. What has wrong with him? This was just a random guy, why was he even paying attention to him?

He carefully tip toed in his head around the idea of whether or not join the Taekwondo club. He even filled the form and scanned it (he just had some time to kill!). The document was sitting on his desktop ready for him to decide what to do with it. He could always just delete it right?

Saturday evening finally came and he was ready to party. He decided to wear black jeans and an orange top, which was slightly tight. 'It was FITTED.' Naruto told himself. He met up with his friends in the city centre and they all took a bus together since Sakura was the only one who knew the way. Soon they arrived in one of the posh areas on the outskirts of their city and the pink-haired girl led them towards one the mansions. They could hear loud music coming from the inside.

"Fuck me, that's a huge house!" Kiba's didn't hide his surprise.

"Yeah, they whole family is very rich." Sakura nodded and looked at him. "Try not to destroy anything, I'm pretty sure none of us could afford a replacement."

Naruto and Kiba sent each other knowing looks. If anyone managed to break something, chances were it would be them. They should at least try to behave, and in the worst case scenario disappear as soon as possible from the crime scene.

Sakura rang the bell and soon after the doors opened.

"Yes?" a strong male voice greeted them.

"We are Hinata's friends, she invited us over." Sakura introduced them. "You're Neji, right? I'm Sakura." She smiled at him. Naruto looked at the guy in the doorway from behind Kiba and his eyes went wide. The long haired one from the sparring! What were the odds? He gaped at him for a while, when the host looked around at them before answering Sakura.

"Yeah, I'm Neji. Come in, I will go find Hinata for you." He left the doors open for them to enter and disappeared in the crowd.

The group made their way inside. Naruto wondered if he should treat this coincidence as a sign or not. Why did it even matter? Ultimately it was his choice weather or not join the club. Why was he looking for excuses?

The house was impressive. Even over the crowds they could tell that it had a stylish, high-end décor. A black haired girl suddenly appeared in front of them, and Naruto recognised her from his tutorial. So her name was Hinata after all.

"Hinata! Nice to see you, thank you for inviting us!" Sakura greeted her friend.

"Sakura…" the girls voice was quiet and shy. "It's my pleasure, thank you for coming…"

"I'll introduce you to the rest." Sakura turned to her friends. "This is Ino, Kiba, Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji." She pointed at each one of them.

"Nice to meet you all…" Hinata blushed a little. "I will guide you around the house."

They followed her further inside the mansion, she showed them where the kitchens were (there were 3 of them), bathrooms (7 in total) the living room, games room and terrace. They grabbed some drinks from the kitchen and sat down on some empty sofas to chat. The party was a little bit stiff as it was still rather early and people didn't get a chance to get too drunk yet.

About 3 beers and countless shots later Naruto was in a comfortable state of drunk happiness. Kiba was in the middle of one of his stories trying to flirt with Hinata, when the blond decided it was time to find the bathroom. He was about to get up when a loud shout on the other side of the room caught everyone's attention.

"Hey everyone, Sasuke is here!" A happy cheer went across the room and a few seconds later said boy entered the room, his hands in his pockets.

"Hn." He greeted the partying crowd cooly, and Naruto's jaw dropped as he immediately recognised the guy.

A group of people swarmed around and a cake appeared out of nowhere.

"Congrats on getting into Nationals!" they cheered simultaneously.

Sasuke smiled at them lightly, clearly a bit surprised.

"Damn guys, this is unexpected. Thanks." Even though his reaction seemed almost cold people around him seemed to think it was enough and cheered again.

After a couple more moments everyone not friends with the raven haired boy went back to the conversations they were having before the he entered the room. Kiba started a new story which he hoped would impress his new target. Naruto was barely listening to his ramblings, his eyes still fixated on Sasuke. Why could he not look away? As if on command the other boy turned and looked straight at Naruto who quickly averted his gaze.

"Naruto, what's up?" Sakura poked him lightly in the stomach and giggled. "You were staring at that guy. Do you know him?" She questioned.

"What? Oh no, no I don't. I wasn't staring, I just spaced out. I need to pee." He quickly excused himself to search for a bathroom. A few rounds ago he would have found it without a problem, but now he felt a little bit lost. Eventually though he managed to find one of them (after all with 7 bathrooms in the house he had to come across one eventually).

Once he finished peeing he put the lid down and sat down for a while. He could swear the moment the guy entered the room his heart first stopped and then started to beat way too fast. He must be more drunk than he realised. He checked the time on his phone. It was barely midnight but maybe he should call it a night, clearly the alcohol went straight to his head and not in a good way. He took a few deep breathes before deciding to exit the bathroom. He opened the door and almost run into someone.

"Uh, sorry!" he blurted out and tried to walk away before realising there was a hand around his arm stopping him.

"Wait."

Naruto's heart almost skipped a beat as he heard the voice. He only heard it twice so far, but there was no mistaking it. Slowly he looked up at a guy he now knew was called Sasuke, who was looking him straight in the eyes. He was taller than Naruto. His dark fitted shirt and jeans emphasized his lean body, and he had a small necklace around his neck. The blond could feel his heart pounding against his chest loudly. He really wanted to look away but for some reason couldn't. And why was he paying attention the guy's clothing and body?

"You look familiar, yet I'm almost sure we haven't met before." Sasuke studied his face. "Do I know you?" He asked in a low, enquiring tone. His eyes studied Naruto's face, probably trying to establish why he looked familiar.

Did he notice Naruto was staring at him earlier? The blond had to swallow before speaking.

"Uh, we go to the same school." He answered trying to make his voice sound calm which was much harder than it should have been. Damn alcohol, he will never mix shots again. "I've seen you fight during the societies fair." He added.

The boy holding him said nothing for a while, as if trying to analyse Naruto's words.

"No, you look more familiar than that." He said finally. Naruto wasn't sure if he was accused of lying or if the guy's voice was naturally a little hostile.

The atmosphere was getting heavy, Sasuke had an intimidating aura of a skilled fighter, and alcohol in Naruto's blood seemed to amplify the blond's perception of this. He almost didn't register that Sasuke's face was much too close for his comfort.

"Naruto, there you are!" a loud shout finally snapped him out of it. 'Thank God for Kiba.' Naruto thought to himself relieved.

"Sakura was worried you got lost or got into trouble and sent me to find you." His friend explained.

"Oh no, I just went to the bathroom!" Naruto forced himself to grin. "Good thing you're such an obedient dog and listen to her orders though!" he teased his friend. The grip on his arm loosened and he quickly walked away towards Kiba who was now trying to land a hit on him, which Naruto effortlessly dodged. He could feel Sasuke's calculating gaze still on him and it took quite a bit of effort to not turn around.

"So, you up for another round? Or are you too weak?" Kiba teased him a challenge in his voice as they walked towards the kitchen.

"Me, weak? You pass out way before me! Bring it!" he didn't care how hangover he was going to be the next morning, right now all he wanted to do was to drink himself into sweet oblivion. Anything to stop thinking about Taekwondo, the club and those piercing black eyes.

That was a quick update wasn't it? I had almost half of this already written last night, so I just finished it up now. I hope you enjoyed this Chapter and the story so far!

Thank you also for the reviews and follows, keep them coming~!

J.