Chapter 2: chance encounter
Sasuke was pissed. Really, really pissed.
This was not how things were supposed to be, far from it, infact. You're not supposed to find your room looking like a stable after you've been away for just a week.
Sasuke knew from experience that Naruto was not someone you could trust when it came to cleanliness, or even minimal personal hygiene. That guy could sleep on a pile
of dirty clothes day after day without noticing a difference between that and a bed.
But what Sasuke saw in front of him was . . . he couldn't even find a word for the scene before him. Downright nasty? Spiteful? Nauseating? Ghastly? Maybe he should
check thesaurus?
"What the fuck Dobe?" Sasuke hissed in disgust. No matter how furious he was (living wih Naruto, that occasion wasn't rare), screaming was never preferable to Uchiha
Sasuke.
The room literally looked like a herd of pig was let loose in there. The floor was covered in dirt. Sasuke was sure there'd be footprints where he was standing if he moved,
which he wasn't gonna, since the parts of the floor that were clean-no, less dirty, were wet, with water, beer, soda, and God only knows what else. Half-eaten cups of
Ramen were lying all over the place, bugs peeking out from some of them. Sasuke couldn't even see his bed under all the clothes, books and loose papers piled over it.
The other bed of the room shared the same condition, with Naruto half-lying right on top of it. He yawned as he finally woke up from his slumber and found his best
friend/roommate standing on the door, looking like somebody had just farted into his mouth.
"Hey teme! You're back! How are ya?"
Naruto's cheeky grin could not lessen the fury etched across his best buddy's face even the smallest bit.
"What the hell is wrong with you, asshole?" Sasuke said, contemplating whether or not he should call the dorm superviser and have the dobe thrown out.
"What are you talking about?" Naruto finally took a look around him and realized why Sasuke looked pissed. He scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.
"Oh. I guess you're mad about the room."
"You're a genius." The sarcasm hardly veiled the outrage in Sasuke's voice.
"Hey, come on teme. My exams are about to start. Besides, you know me. I'm not really the 'close to godliness' type of person, remember?" He said defensively.
Yes, Sasuke knew that, having lived with the dobe for 4 years and being his friend since high school, he sure as hell knew that. But this time Naruto had really outdone
himself. The room looked like a cleaning lady's worst nightmare.
Naruto mistook Sasuke's silence as an acceptance of his excuse and said enthusiastically, "So what if the room's a little dirty? We are guys, we'll survive, eh teme?" Then
he started laughing nervously.
Sasuke would have picked up something from the pile of clothes and gagged his best friend with it, had he not seen a large brown mouse peeking out of the pile. Instead
he just gave Naruto the deadliest glare he could manage. That did it's job. Naruto stopped laughing abruptly and started scratching his head again.
Slowly, cautiously, Sasuke walked into the room, but before he'd taken five steps…
ZPPSSS
A cup of ramen was crushed under his left foot, spilling all over the entrance. Sasuke's favourite white sneakers were now a mild orange. And Naruto's ill-suppressed
laughter only made the whole situation much, much worse.
"NARUTO!" this time the roar escaped from Sasuke's controlled demeanor and shook the hell out of the poor blonde.
"H-hey teme" Naruto tried to make amends, "I'm s-sorry, ok?" Sasuke took a deep breath to calm himself but the disgusting smell of rotten food pushed him over the
edge.
"Dobe, I give you 60 seconds to get the fuck out of here and get the cleaning lady before I tear off your fuckingtoungue and use it to strangle you to fucking death, you get
me?" It was all Sasuke could get through gritted teeth without kicking the dobe on the shin.
Naruto nodded fiercely and stormed out of the room. And then, out of the dorm.
It'd only be suicide to remind Sasuke that the cleaning lady was unavailable on Sundays.
Sasuke gave a final sweep at the floor of their room and then wiped the sweat out of his brow. After four painful hours of cleaning, moping, resisting puke and cursing
Naruto with all the colorful words he could muster, the room looked somehow neat. Inhabitable, to say the least. The beds were now free of all the dirty clothes, which
now rested inside a big carton on the door for the cleaning lady to pick up the next day. The loose papers turned out to be Naruto's notes from the finance class and
Sasuke took great pleasure in throwing them into the trash, along with all the god forsaken ramen cups- empty or full. It served the dobe right for massacring the room
and screwing with Sasuke's immune system. He'd almost thrown up after finding a dead rat in his desk drawer.
Taking one final look at the room, Sasuke decided his work was done. He put the wiper behind the cupboard and exhaled tiredly. It'd been a really long day. First the 4
hour bus journey from Konoha to Sound, for which he had to wake up at 5 am in the morning, then this whole cleaning job. He so needed a walk right now.
With that thought in mind, Sasuke closed the door to their room, locked it, and set out for a peaceful stroll at the park.
Sasuke was a student of Computer Engeenering at the Sound University of Engineering and Business Administration. To be specific, he was almost done with his course,
just waiting for the final exam of the semester and after that he'd be a certified technician at what he always found interesting-computer programming. Last week was
actually his last vacation before the upcoming exam. Sasuke wanted to see his mother once before the tremendous pressure of studies tackled him. He didn't mind
studying at all, really, unlike most other students, he found his studies as something 'fun' to do. Ofcourse, he needed the occasional breaks and entertainments, but he
never regretted a vacation coming to an end. Naruto wouldn't stop calling him 'bookworm' or 'mr. genius' or many other cheesier names that he invented for his best
friend(although teme was his all time favourite). Yet Sasuke never lessened his concentration in his studies, because firstly, computer programming was not just a subject
he studied, it was his passion, and secondly, being the best at whatever he did had always been a priority to Uchiha Sasuke.
As Sasuke reached the entrance of the large park at the end of the city, the gentle afternoon breeze grazed the sharp spikes of his raven hair and lifted his spirits just a
little. In the last four years, this park had become something special to Sasuke. He never came here with Naruto or any other friends he sometimes hung out with, this
place and this time of the day was entirely his. At the east corner of the park stood a tall Sakura tree, it's long branches hiding a large part of the bright blue afternoon
sky, which was on the verge of turning crimson as dusk came nearer. There was a round platform beneath the huge brown branches, surrounding the wide and heavy
trunk of the magnificent tree. During sunset, the long branches, covered in pinkish leaves and pearl white flowers, created a wonderful contrast with the crimson sky and
presented a serene view.
Sasuke was probably the least poetic human alive, and even he knew that the place was damn beautiful.
Fortunately for him, very few people cared to walk all the way to this part of the park and that's why no one knew of this stunning place. That was another reason why
Sasuke treasured this place so dearly. This was the one place where he could seek peace, and solitude.
Sasuke hopped on the platform and started walking around it. He preferred to sit at the other side of the tree, from where he could have a perfect view of the sunset and
stay hidden by the massive trunk, if anyone happened to come by that place.
Except that someone was already occupying that space now.
What the hell?Was the only thought that came to his mind, and in the rush of bewilderment, he failed to notice that he'd said it out loud.
The person sitting under the tree, however, didn't fail to notice the angry remark and the one responsible for it, as he jumped up from his sitting position in surprise and
the hood of his sweater came off from his head.
The first thing Sasuke registered was a load of glossy pink hair, and as his eyes slid lower, a pair of emareld green eyes that were regarding him with the same shock he
knew mirrored his. A girl, Sasuke realized. This person reminded him of someone from way back, and it looked like she was thinking the same thing.
After a few seconds of staring at each other in astonishment, with a little annoyance from Sasuke's part and a little alarm from the girl, realization made it's way to both
strangers' minds and they shot out in unision,
"You?"
A/N: Am i going too slow?