Chapter 22: Revelations! Laps? Who is this freaky child?
The Grand High Prince took in a deep breath and stepped over the threshold. The lecture hall was bustling – clumps of people standing, talking, moving and full of all together too much energy for such an early hour in the morning. Far too much. Energy.
Sasuke sipped his coffee, passed the now-empty cup to an unsuspecting classmate and walked on.
One clump of people was centred around Princess Sakura. Sasuke gave this group a wide berth, but it seemed to follow him. Then he saw Kiba - he almost started in surprise.
The brunette lounged against the wall, a relaxed grin on his face. 'Hey,' the boy said to a passing student, looking her up and down. The student gave Kiba a double take and almost tripped. They exchanged sidelong grins. Sasuke nearly groaned into his hand.
'Oi! Uchiha!' Kiba said, too loudly, the moment he noticed Sasuke. 'Don't slink off.'
So there was no avoiding him.
'Been a while, hasn't it, boot-boy?' Kiba asked with a wink.
Sasuke delivered the dignified glare such a question deserved. 'Not long enough. What are you doing here?'
'Apparently I'm a student. Go figure. Hey,' that last was said to another student. This one managed not to trip, only bump into someone. Kiba turned back to Sasuke, whispering none-too-subtly, 'I've got a bet going with Jiraiya about how many I can get into bed in the first week. This is gonna be soo easy.' He winked at another student, who blushed.
Jiraiya? But just then something fell into place in Sasuke's head, sending his eyes around the room, to settle on . . . blond hair in the middle of a crowd. Sasuke tried to sit down as fast as he could, but by this stage people had noticed he was there, and since he had to admit that he was, after all, Uchiha Sasuke, all gazes were swinging in his direction.
Within seconds, Naruto waved merrily and approached. Students began to stare between the Prince and the beaming blond boy. Sasuke could almost hear their unvoiced questions. He readied a glare. It met a wide grin and shining blue eyes. Oh god. Could the boy not even stay angry? He'd been fuming yesterday. Sasuke had tried so hard to get him angry.
'Look,' Naruto said happily, 'That chair's empty.' From Naruto's expression, this discovery caused a wave of pure, innocent, unabashed delight. Shit.
'But you still can't sit there, baka.'
Naruto stood next to the chair, running his finger along the top of its back. 'I'm just' – he said as he lowered himself into the seat – 'gonna.'
Sasuke thought quickly – he couldn't give too much of a reaction, because then people would suspect that he and Naruto had a history. But he had to get rid of Naruto, and his all too obvious behaviour, quickly – knowing Naruto, this was perhaps impossible without a large degree of violence and noise. The prince was caught in a tricky situation, so, more out of instinct than anything else, he glared. One his really good glares.
And Naruto was immune to it, as usual. Damn.
Sasuke thought somewhat wistfully that, with the chain, at least, he could have whacked Naruto over the head.
Sasuke sensed the arrival of menacing evil and was surprised by the fact that Gaara must be showing up for class on time. Or at all. But his main source of surprise and ire was that Gaara was sitting himself down right next to Naruto.
No! Royal order! Some part of Sasuke's brain shouted to him. I herby decree a three metre Naruto quarantine rule. Especially for people looking at him like that! Not even looking – more like leering!
'The seat's too small, Sabaku.' So what if he lost Sand support? Did he really need it? Really?
Naruto's reaction was, as usual, not an ordinary one. First the blond sidled up to Sasuke. Then he lifted himself off the seat just enough to facilitate his next move – practically bloody sitting in Sasuke's lap.
'Oh look, there's plenty of room,' the blond said. He grinned at Sasuke, he grinned at Gaara. He sighed happily.
The Prince felt another intent-to-kill and peered out of the corner of his eye. Neji was glaring at all three of the boys. Sasuke suppressed the urge to sigh. He may well lose all chance of Hyuuga support as well.
Naruto sat in a few seconds of blissful, comfortable, warm, ignorance. That took place before Sasuke picked him up by the waist and dumped unceremoniously onto the floor. 'Now, you're off the seat,' the Prince remarked blandly. 'See? It's easy, even for you.'
Naruto decided that that was the time to give the world's most obvious wink. Sasuke almost throttled him, but was startled when Kiba, a few seats away, his arm already comfortably around a girl, (1) gave a loud snort and barked out a laugh.
What with his laughter and his subsequent amused comments (and the fact that he was slowly undoing the top buttons of his shirt), Kiba managed to take most of the attention off Sasuke and Naruto – and off the fact that Naruto was still beaming adoringly up at Sasuke.
Sasuke could have kissed the lecturer that walked in at that moment and told Naruto to sit at the front. But then he saw who it was – it was a she, he knew she was at least fifty, and she had breasts the size of tanks.(2) Kissing Tsunade would not be the best way to begin the academic year. At least the blond distraction was about twenty seats away.
xXx
In the short break between lessons, it became very clear what Princess Sakura thought of the new blond boy in the school of magic.
Either it was her screaming or her raining fists, one or the other gave the impression that she was not best pleased.
In spite of this, Naruto managed to be right next to Sasuke as he was sitting down for the next lesson. Sasuke had pulled out every single sneaking skill he had, so the dobe must have improved dramatically.
Well enough, at least, to end up in Sasuke's lap. The boy did not know the meaning of the word subtle. Luckily, Kiba had arranged his growing group of admirers around the two of them, so at least Gaara, Neji and Sakura were kept away and the situation had less of a chance of becoming violent, for the moment.
xXx
Sasuke spent the entire lesson with his arms wedged against Naruto's side, keeping him off his lap and at a decent distance. As nice as Sasuke's hands were, Naruto still preferred the lap. The bloody Prince also disappeared the minute class was over.
Just as Naruto began his hunting-down attempts, the weird, freaky short red-head, with far too much eye-liner around his eyes (3) pushed Naruto against the wall of the emptying room, with a death-grip around his wrist.
'What are you doing?' the blond exclaimed angrily, but then, because of the intense look in the guy's eyes, he stilled and immediately began observing the boy's body-language for a sign of attack. The red-head stood between Naruto and the few people still in the room, making it virtually impossible for him to move away.
'So,' began the stranger.
Naruto eye-balled him warily.
'. . . Your name's Uzumaki Naruto?'
'. . . Yes.' Naruto tried to inch away, sliding across the wall as far as he could.
'What you doing this evening?'
Naruto stopped moving entirely. He blinked. After many flirting attempts of Kiba's and the subsequent explanations he gave, Naruto now knew what phrases like that meant. He blinked again.
'I'm busy.'
'With what?'
'Uchiha-hunting.'
Gaara's back straightened. 'The Prince?'
'The Prince.' The only group left in the room now was the pink-haired screeching freak's band of giggling followers. Would Gaara start a fight over this if other people were here? Probably.
The red-head – Gaara, wasn't it? – leant back with a smug expression. 'You won't have much luck there.'
'What do you mean by that? I never give up!'
'Whether you give up or not, the Prince will still be engaged to Princess Haruno Sakura.'
Engaged? Naruto's eyes widened in shock. To a Princess? Where had be heard that name? Somewhere, somewhere recently, today . . . His eyes fell onto the loudly giggling pink-haired female in the middle of the room.
The blond boy's jaw dropped.
xXx
(1)
Little pirate noted that, at the rate Kiba is going, he's all set to be ground zero for the infamous Konoha palace STI mass breakout. O.O o.O That's what the poor boy gets for setting out to see the world and all its bits. Let this be a lesson to you :P O.o
(2)
One can't simply tank-cat into Mordor! Tank! Meow. Jiggle jiggle. (except this is Tsunade we're talking about, so it's more like: JUGGLE JUGGLE, GA-DUFF)
(3)
Little pirate said mascara by mistake – Gaara with gorgeous eyelashes, fluttering them at the unsuspecting Naruto