"Ah! How the journey on the road of life has so many twists and turns," our instructor, Kakashi-sensei, sighed out as he entered the room fifteen minutes after the bell rang.

"Okay?" I said quizzically at our teacher's odd behavior. I turned my head to face the bastard I had ran into earlier, his face as stoic as earlier.

I wander if that's the only facial expression the kid can make . . .

"Well," Kakashi-sensei said, holding a large stack of paper in his arms, "I have put all of you into partners – you will work with your partner on multiple projects throughout the year. At the end of each trimester you will evaluate each other in a graded assignment. You are responsible for your partner passing this course, if they fail your grade drops considerably."

Everyone in the room, even the stoic asshole next to me, groaned in annoyance at Kakashi-sensei's statement.

For the rest of the class time Kakashi-sensei passed out our syllabi which were huge because it stated all the assignments for the year along with the grading rubric per assignment. Can you say overboard?

Near the end of class Kakashi-sensei had announced all the partners, and with my luck my name was the last to be announced.

"And last but not least, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki. Now, as the syllabus states you have a partner assignment due tomorrow so I suggest you get together and work on it after school rather than rushing to get it done in the morning." And with that the end of the day bell rang.

As everyone began to file out of the classroom, talking to their respective partner, I simply turned to my right where my stoic bastard of a partner still sat.

"So your house or mine?" I asked my usual smile on my face. Sasuke was putting away his syllabus seeming to ignore me. I opened my mouth again to yell at the teme for ignoring me when he put his cell phone to his ear, beginning to talk.

"Itachi, I'll be home later I have to work on a partner assignment that's due tomorrow. Tell Madara I don't need the ride." And with that, he hung up the phone, no hello or goodbye gracing the conversation.

He's even rude to his own family . . . I can so see me kicking his ass in the near future.

Sasuke got up and walked toward the door, my eyes never leaving the seat he had previously occupied.

"Dobe, we going to your place or not?" he said obviously agitated with me.

"Oh . . . bastard! Don't call me dobe, teme!" I yell at him while I grab my stuff before making my way toward the door. "Oh shit!" I quickly grabbed my phone from my orange jacket's pocket. The stoic ass hole glared daggers at me as I stood in the middle of the hallway.

"Naruto?" Neji said on the other side of the phone.

"Hey! Could you give a friend of mine a ride to my house too? We have some homework to work on and it's due tomorrow so we're going to my house to work on it, and you already said you'd give me a ride home and it'd be rude to make him walk all the way to my house. Though he is pretty much a stoic bastard who's the devils incarnate or something–" My words came out in one long breath.

"Naruto. Calm down. Take a breath." I did as he said. Neji has been around me long enough to no longer be bugged to high heavens by my rambling. "It's ok for your devil friend to come since Raeyl told Hinata she didn't need a ride today so there's room."

"What! Raeyl's not coming? What the hell!" I obviously hurt Neji's ears with my outburst because everyone in the hallway looked at me like I was a pariah or something.

What the fuck . . . Raeyl, what's up with you?

"Naruto. Damn. You don't have to blow my eardrums out. And I don't know why Raeyl's not coming; she just told Hinata she didn't need the ride. If you yell in my car I will kick you out like last time, but this time I won't slow the car down even one mile per hour, and I will kick you out on the freeway if I have to." And that was the end of the phone call.

His calm threat made me cringe. On the last day of middle school, Neji drove our group of friends to his house to celebrate, and me being the loudmouthed idiot I tend to be most of the time, I would not shut up for the life of me. So, when we left the freeway, Neji pulled over and shoved me kindly out of the car.

But that experience wasn't all that bad, because I met my newest friend Haku. Haku and his boyfriend Zabuza we're running from the cops and when I got shoved out of the car, I hit Zabuza on accident.

"Come on Neji!" I bellowed as he shoved me out of the car and over Kiba in the process. All I was doing was stating why I was so happy to be going to high school and Neji decides to throw me out of the car because I was too loud. I'm always loud, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I was born loud and I'm proud of it.

The moment my body was out of the car, he shut the door and drove on down the road without a word. I still don't understand how he got the door open, got me out of the car, and shut the door from the drivers' seat when I was in the middle of the backseat.

"Fuck!" I heard a voice say from behind me, I turned around and saw the scariest guy I've ever seen. He looked like a killer.

"Zabuza, are you ok?" the young girl next to the murderer-looking man asked as I moved away from the scary guy before I pissed my pants.

"Uh . . . I'm sorry, my friend just shoved me out of the car and apparently I was shoved into you, or at least onto your foot . . . which I'm sorry for stepping on." The words left my mouth before I had any chance to think about them, I was about to be in fight or flight mode, and I was sure as hell gonna flight from this fight.

"Hmmph!"The murderer dude scoffed at my ramblings as the girl with him giggled. "Haku, we have to go." He began to walk away; the girl stared at my eyes with a smile on her face.

"Dude, why'd your friends kick you out of the car? You try to molest him or something?" She asked adjusting her jeans.

"No, I didn't try to molest anyone. . . I just was too loud. . ." I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly; the way this girl was looking at me was too close for comfort. It was like she could read into my soul or something. Creepier than the murderer-looking dude she's with.

"Too loud . . . hm . . . I can see that blondie. So what's your name? I'm Haku." Her smile never faulted.

"Naruto," I reached my hand out to her for a hand shake. She took my outstretched hand and nearly breaking said hand in her vice like grip. Girls do not grip this hard, not even superhuman Raeyl.

"I'm guessing by that look on your face that you thought I was a girl this whole time." He, well apparently Haku was a male, smiled at me brighter than before. "I do get that a lot. It helps Zabuza's business if I cross-dress every once and a while. It was nice meeting you Naruto." Haku then walked after Zabuza, leaving me alone on the side of the road.

A few days after that, I walked into my room, and there was Haku. Just sittin' on my bed like a villain, that godforsaken smile on his face. We talked for a while, eventually he told me about Zabuza and his mob connections, I was surprised that we had a mob in Yakima because of the cruddy gangs and all, and that they were in hiding. The reason that Haku was in my room is that he saw something in my eyes that told him that I'd be a good friend. I, being me, simply smiled at that. He gave me a throwaway cell phone with two numbers in it, Haku's and Zabuza's. If I needed anything I could call them, day or night.

For weeks after that, Haku and I texted each other and got to know one another. But lately his responses have been more sporadic. I think nothing of it because he is on the run.

"Naruto?" Sasuke looked at me quizzically. "Are you always so loud?"

"Yes I am!" I smirked, feeling a lot better knowing that my loudness annoyed the hell out of the teme. "Now come on, if we don't meet up with Neji he will leave us here and the bus doesn't stop anywhere near my house. I am not walking home today I tell ya!"

The ride back to my house was obnoxiously quiet; it was only so quiet because I didn't want to get kicked out of the car again. Also, I was annoyingly being fidgety. I hate being fidgety, but I was and it was the damn teme's fault!

I was nervous at showing him my house, it had been a long time since I had someone from school come over to my house who had never been there before, besides Haku but he wasn't invited so it was different . . . and it wasn't this nerve wracking when all my other friends first came over . . . Urg! This is annoying! I hate being nervous! Being nervous made me fidgety which leads to me rubbing my arms raw, and that freakin' hurts.

As we pulled up to my house, Hinata turned to me with her usual meek smile on her face, "Naruto, I hope you and Sasuke have fun getting your work done."

"Thank you Hinata! If only you were my partner, you're so much nicer than this damn teme will ever be!" I gave her my usual smile.

In middle school, back when I still had a huge crush on Sakura; Hinata had an even bigger crush on me. It took me a while to notice it (Raeyl and Sakura had to hit me in the head and yell in my ears the fact that she did like me) so it wasn't until 8th grade that we went out. It was only to the last dance of the year, but we had fun. Ever since then, Hinata and I have become closer friends. She actually met someone else over the summer when she went to Hawaii with her family for vacation (the guy was on vacation too and he lives in West Valley so he's not that far away from Yakima) and they've been dating ever since. I've never met him, but he seems really nice from the way Hinata describes him. But for some reason I can't remember his name . . .

Neji idled his car in the driveway like he always did, "Let me know if you need a ride tomorrow," he stated not turning to face me at all, but that's Neji for you.

"Done deal," I smiled as I opened the door and stepped out, "see you then!"

Sasuke got out of the car as quietly as he had gotten into it. After Neji left the silence grew more awkward. Man do I hate awkward silences.

"Okay, this is my pad! Welcome. Now, there's no one here since Raeyl didn't come home . . .so we have the place to ourselves." I smiled, trying to sound like my usual self but failing miserably since I began to rub at my arms.

Rubbing my arms is a habit that I thought I had gotten rid of, but apparently I haven't. When I'm around new people I fidget and rub at my arms until they are red and raw and hurt like hell. It's been three years since I last rubbed at my arms . . . damn teme! Making me all nervous and shit! I will get you for this!

"Hn." He said as I finally got the front door open. Because of my fidgeting and rubbing at my arms it took hell of a lot longer to unlock the door than it usually did.

"So . . . let's go to my room," I walk ahead of Sasuke, walking through the house to my bedroom. He followed me, his eyes taking in the place.

"Your home is interesting," were the first words he said since we left the school.

"Well thank you." I took that as a compliment even though his voice inflection left the impression that he was being sarcastic.

I walked into my room first and tossed my bag onto my desk with a sigh before I began to fiddle with random things in my room. I opened a drawer, moved stuff around, closed the drawer and moved onto something else.

There was about who-knows-how-long of a silence that ensued as I fiddled with anything that I could get my hands on. And somehow I managed to continue to rub at my arm, that's a feat I tell you . . .

Why the heck . . . I've never been this fidgety around anyone. . .

"Your room is bright," Sasuke said, staring at the orange splotch of paint that was on my wall. I don't know if he said that to break the silence or not, but I was thankful for his words.

"Yea, I like it . . ." I stopped fiddling with items on my desk but continued to rub against my arms.

"Stop fidgeting, its annoying," Sasuke continued to look at the orange splotch as he said this, "you're rubbing your arms raw." He turned his eyes from the wall and they bore into mine. His obsidian eyes piercing my blue orbs as he closed the distance between us.

"I can rub my arms all I want, this is my room!" I yelled as he invaded my personal bubble.

The distance was miniscule at this point, our heads were only inches apart, our lips . . . his hot breath ghosted my lips with each of his exhaled breaths.

"Whatever dobe," he said haughtily with a smirk as his lips ghosted over mine with his words. My body stiffened, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Neither of us moved. "Dobe," his lips crashed into mine so harshly that I was stunned for a moment – after the initial shock faded my lips moved in rhythm with his. I moaned when his hands touched my reddened arms, his smirk widened into the kiss.

My mind wasn't thinking, not comprehending the fact that I barely knew Sasuke, or that I was kissing a boy – not that I had a problem with homosexuality or anything, it's just . . . I've never been attracted to another boy before . . .

We moved closer to my bed, and the second my legs touched it Sasuke broke the kiss long enough to push me onto the bed. I took this time to catch my breath.

"You're one inexperienced kisser dobe," the statement pissed me off, but I was to flushed to argue with him as he began to straddle my hips, "I'll teach you."

His lips caught mine again, this time a bit more gently; a bit more sensual with his tongue ghosting our lips making my whole body shiver. He obviously felt said shiver because he smirked again, obviously enjoying being dominant.

At this point the bastard decided to dig his damn nails into my hips making me moan. Sasuke then shoved his tongue into my mouth attacking my tongue with his own. This led to a fight for dominance, because Naruto Uzumaki was not submissive to anybody, as our bodies got closer, our lips rubbing against one another's.

Well apparently this make-out session was affecting my body, because my jeans tightened uncomfortably during our ministrations. And I wasn't the only one because I could feel Sasuke's arousal every time our hips touched.

I pulled away from the kiss to catch my breath, "that was . . ." I couldn't even finish my thought.

"Dobe . . . am I your first kiss?" Obviously Sasuke could control his breathing just fine. Bastard.

Why did he ask me that . . .?

"No," I answered after my breath was caught, not one ounce of understanding why he wanted to know that bit of information.

"Was it a girl, or a boy?" he asked quietly, our eyes locked.

"A girl. Raeyl . . ." I was still confused as to where this conversation was headed.

"So you're straight."

"I doubt that!" I laughed out, "erections are effects of sexual attraction." I smiled my answer letting my true self reveal itself while gesturing toward my crotch.

Well now I feel idiotic for being all fidgety.

Sasuke relaxed his gaze and leaned closer to me, kissing my forehead, "good because I'm stealing you away from that Raeyl girl."

The feel of his lips against my forehead brought me more chills and sensations than our earlier ministrations.

"I'm not something that you can steal, and I'm not Raeyl's property."

"Dobe," his breath was now on my neck, bringing new heat to my body, "you're mine now."

"Fuck!" I screamed our in a mixture of pain and pleasure when Sasuke bit my neck.

"Hn." He said into the bite.

Damn bastard! If he makes me bleed I'm going to kick his ass!

"No biting!" I yelled as he released his teeth from my neck.

"You do not need to yell so much dobe," the damn teme said to partially ruin the mood.

"What did I tell you teme about calling me dobe!" no one can tell Naruto Uzumaki what to do . . . well Raeyl can, but that's a different story.

"Naruto! Who are you yelling at!" that voice . . . Oh shit! Raeyl!

"Shit!" I said under my breath, "Don't come in!" I yelled, trying to get out from under Sasuke.

Shit Raeyl doesn't need to see this!

After fidgeting to get away from Sasuke. I succeeded and gained that damn stoic look from him again. Like I care at this moment. This is fucking embarrassing!

"Naruto, you better not be masturbating . . ." Raeyl said, opening the door.

Damnit, didn't I tell her not to come it!

"Oh!" She said, " you have a guest. Hello!" she smiled at Sasuke. "I'm Raeyl Okami, nice to meet you."

"Sasuke Uchiha." The bastard said too calmly for his own good.

"Uchiha . . ." I barely heard her say is so I read her lips - her eyes glazed over a second before going back to normal.

"Raeyl . . ."

"Well, I just came in here to tell you Tsunade and Jiraiya decided to go out for dinner so I'm ordering pizza. You can stay for dinner Sasuke," she was back to her normal self.

She's being weird today . . .

"Thank you, I'd be delighted to stay for dinner."

Apparently the teme could be polite. . .

"Naruto . . . what's that on your neck?" my hand immediately shot to where Sasuke had bit me. I looked obviously flustered; also I'm pretty sure I looked like a tomato. I could feel the flush in my cheeks.

"Nothing!" I said in a panic. Like that doesn't give me away.

"It's obviously something since you're hiding it." She smirked knowingly, "Is it a hickey? Did Sasuke give you a hickey?" she stated jokingly.

"It's more of a mark of possession." Sasuke's words made my eyes widen and my head lighten.

WHAT!

"Naruto are you okay . . . ?"

"The aroma should wake him up . . . he loves it more than anything else in this world. He's under the belief that ramen could cure cancer.*"

I could barely hear Raeyl's words as the heavenly aroma of ramen wafted my senses.

Hmmm. . . . ramen . . .

My eyes fluttered open slowly, my vision sleepily blurry. I could barely make out two figures.

"It seemed the sodium death trap woke the dobe up," the other figure's voice made my body shiver happily.

Who is that?

"Naruto, you okay? You fainted," Raeyl said, my vision getting clearer as I stared at her worried face.

"I . . . fainted?" my voice wavered as I spoke.

"Dobe, you stopped breathing after Raeyl asked you if I gave you a hickey," I turned toward the other voice, recognizing it now.

"Sasuke?"

"Yes, Sasuke. Now Naruto, eat your ramen before the pizza gets here or you don't get any," Raeyl thrust the steaming bowl filled with heavenly ramen at me. My mouth immediately watered in anticipation, "Now I'm leaving you two alone until the pizza gets here." With that Raeyl left the room – the door closing the only sound left in the room – the sound bringing me back the memory of what had happened before I lost consciousness.

"Fuck! Fainting is so girlie," I groaned slurping down my ramen. "What type of man faints?

"You, dobe."

"Don't call me dobe you damn teme! It's all your fault saying it's a possession mark! All you did was fucking bite me! That hurt you bastard!" I yelled after a large gulp of ramen.

"I can call you what I like," his smug attitude was really pissing me off.

"No you can't – calling me a dobe if fucking rude," I defended myself.

"And you calling me teme isn't?" he raised his eyebrow with his question. Touché.

"Let's make a deal; I won't call you teme if you don't call me dobe."

Why the hell was I being democratic with that bastard?

My mind wondered back to earlier, his lips on mine, our hips rocking back and forth together . . . . Okay! Yea, done thinking about that!

"Hn."

"Don't you 'hn' me!" I whined after finishing off the last bits of my precious ramen.

"Naruto! Sasuke! The pizza's here!" Raeyl's voice reverberated in my ears.

"We're coming!" I responded.

Eventually, Sasuke and I finished the assignment we had to do – though it took longer than it needed to take because we distracted ourselves. . .

"So, how you getting home?" I looked up at the raven who was holding me as we lay on my bed.

I could get used to this. . .

"I'll call my niece – her boyfriend lives a few blocks away," Sasuke stated, his eyes back to the orange splotch on my bedroom wall.

"Oh, so your niece is older than you?" I asked – he had yet to mention anything about his family. But to make it even, neither had I.

"Yeah, she's 19."

"What's her name?" I asked curiously.

"Isane, her twin's name is Izuru."

"You have two nieces? Cool!" I said excitedly.

"It's not cool," his grip around my waist tightened with his words.

"How? I think it would be awesome to have a niece. It's always awesome to have a family . . ." I got quieter with every word I spoke, depressing myself out a little bit.

"Hn." Sasuke moved his head so that his chin was resting on top of my head, "sometimes a large family isn't as awesome as you'd think. The larger the family, the bigger the secrets get."

"Hmm. . ." I leaned my back closer to his chest with a yawn, "I'm going to pass out soon."

One of Sasuke's hands left its spot on my waist to take out his cell phone. It only took a minute for his niece to answer.

"Isane, I need a ride home . . . I had to go to a friend's house for homework. . . . Isane I have friends and stop calling me gay sauce . . . that's none of your business . . . it doesn't matter if you're older I'm your uncle . . . just shut up and come get me, I know you traced the call . . . hn." He flipped the phone shut, a scowl on his face.

"Gay sauce? Traced call?" I mumbled . . . Isane seems like one interesting girl. . .

"She loves," he said sarcastically "to trace my calls so she can bug me. It gets annoying." He put his phone back in his pocket.

My eyebrows rose lazily, "What the heck is wrong with her? If she's like that, what's her twin do?"

"No one knows, their mother took her away and just left Isane," he said, monotonous and casual.

"Well that's mean, take one kid and leave the other. Why'd she do that?" I yawned the last word, snuggling closer to Sasuke for warmth. My eyes fluttered closed.

"She believed Isane inherited the Uchiha demon," he said in a voice close to a whisper. If I wasn't so close to him I wouldn't have even heard him. His phone began to ring then, "Yes. . . knock on the door . . . you know her, how do you know her? . . . Fine. I'll be right there."

"Who was that?" I asked as Sasuke's hold on be vanished as he began to grab his stuff.

"Isane. She's afraid to let Raeyl know she's here . . . something happened during the summer apparently. She refuses to tell me what is was." He put his bag on his shoulders, and opened the door – I was too tired to move off the bed to walk him to the door.

"Hm . . . I'll have to ask Raeyl about it," I yawned again to Sasuke's smirk.

"You're a rather lazy one," he left the room with that – I was too tired to even stick my tongue out at him like I'd normally do.

So much had happened in such a short time – a week ago Raeyl and I kissed, school started, and I have a boyfriend. How did my life take such a turn so quickly?

Life moves in mysterious ways, and after this day everything changed from normalcy to abnormalcy in the blink of an eye. These incidents will not only change me, but everyone around me. We would go from innocent bystanders to tainted individuals in a matter of moments.

A/N:

Well, here's chapter two! I hope you enjoyed the line 'cause I enjoyed writing it (I actually wrote it while I was in class and we were discussing Mad Cow).

Originally I didn't have the part about Haku and Zabuza, but because they are crucial to the plot they had to be introduced somewhere and it seemed like the sooner the better!

*reference to "Therapy" by NavyBlueWings - - if you love SasuNaru than go and look this story up. It's one of my favorites!

I do not own Isane or Izuru, she's owned by Yuka (.com).

Well, see you in the next chapter, please review!