Chapter 57
Naruto
I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing on my bed side table. I ignored it the first two calls, but on the third, I was getting pissed off and I groggily reached for the phone, failing twice but managed to grab the phone and answer it on the last ring.
"Uzumaki speaking." I grumbled, refusing to open my eyes to see who had called.
"Hey Naruto, it's your Dad. I was just wondering when you'll be home, I'm gonna have to stay at the office for a few more hours because nobody here knows how to file anything correctly." Dad's voice echoed in my ear.
"I don't know, probably soon." I yawned. "Make sure you're paid over time."
"Alright. I'll call when I'm on my way home." Dad said with a small chuckle in his voice. "And I'll make sure they know you said that."
"Okay Dad." I muttered.
"See you when I get home Naruto, hey, maybe we can rent a movie and order some pizza if it's not too late." Dad suggested.
"Sure." I smiled, though I don't know why I smiled, I was too tired to remember why.
"See you soon Naruto." Dad said, and I don't have a clue if I said good bye back to him before I hung up and put my phone back on my bed side table, though I think I failed when I heard a dull thud, but I didn't care, I kicked off my blankets because I was starting to sweat and rolled onto my side and forced my eyes open. Great, I couldn't go back to sleep.
Sighing heavily, I forced myself to sit up and fling my legs over the side of the bed and stretched as best as I could before I got up and walked out of the room while scratching my lower back, wishing I could scratch the middle of my back because it was a little itchy, but I let it slide as I rubbed my eyes and went to the kitchen to get something to drink.
"Well, someone's finally up." Sasuke's voice said, and grumbled something under my breath, but if you were to ask me, I have no clue what I could have said.
"I don't think he's fully awake yet Sasuke." I heard someone whisper when I grabbed a soda and sat down at the table.
"You mean he could be sleep walking?" Sasuke asked.
"Shut up teme." I hissed, opening the soda and gulping it down like it was water until I choked on the carbonation and burped a few times.
"Take your time with it Naruto." I heard Gaara say before I felt someone patting my back lightly.
"Scratch." I mumbled as I put the soda down and laid my head down on the table, getting my wish as I felt the hand start lightly scratching my back, making me shudder a little bit. A hum of happiness as I smiled and relaxed a little bit.
"Are you hungry Naruto? You've slept all day and haven't had anything to eat." I heard Sasuke ask as I heard someone get up and walk past me.
"Pizza." I mumbled, remembering my conversation with Dad, and the thought of Dad made me suddenly straighten up so fast that I accidentally hurt my back slightly because the hand scratching my back, his nails dug into it.
"What's wrong?" Gaara asked when he pulled his hand back suddenly. Yes, I was fully awake now.
"Oh, nothing, Dad called a little bit ago saying he'll be home in a few hours." I answered. "And he even proposed that we rent a movie and order pizza if I don't eat dinner before I go home."
"Oh, so that's what that was a few minutes ago." Sasuke said behind me. "We thought we heard something coming from your room."
"I was just about to go check it out and see what it was when you came out here." Gaara added.
"I see." I shrugged. "But I don't know if I can wait a few more hours … I'm starving." I said. "What did you guys get for lunch anyway?"
"We did order ramen, but you were so out of it we couldn't wake you up with it." Sasuke said, and now I felt offended. Was I really that exhausted?
"I don't believe you." I huffed as I crossed my arms.
"The evidence is in the trash." Gaara chuckled and sure enough, when I turned to look at the trash can, the take out boxes for Ichiraku's Ramen was sticking out and I whimpered at the sight. They left nothing for me.
"I can order you a box if you want." Sasuke said, and I smiled at the idea, but then frowned.
"Should I wait and have dinner with Dad?" I asked, turning in the chair as I looked between Gaara and Sasuke for some help.
"I don't know." Sasuke shrugged.
"You should eat now, you haven't ate all day." Gaara said, reminding me how little I have in my stomach.
I was about to say something when my stomach growled angrily at me, and that's what made up my mind for me. "I'll eat now."
"What would you like to eat?" Sasuke asked as he opened the fridge. "We have left over pizza from Thursday and we have pizza rolls in the freezer." Sasuke assed when he also opened the freezer. Everything pizza … guess karma is getting me again.
"I'll have the left over pizza before it goes bad." I shrugged, then turned when I turned to face the table when I heard Sasuke pull out the plate with pizza on it and stick it into the microwave. Then I remembered our homework.
"Wait, did you guys already do the critique work?" I asked, and I could feel my stomach sinking with each passing second no one answered.
"Yea, we critiqued each others' work." Gaara said, his eyes drifting to the side as he refused to look at me. Fuck, they read mine!
"You did not read mine!" I whined, dropping my head on the table hard enough for the thud to echo in the room.
"We did, and we really liked it." Gaara said, and that made me bring my head up with an eyebrow raised in question.
"I'm not that great of a writer, Gaara, and you know that." I sighed.
"He's right Naruto." Sasuke said when the microwave went off and he opened it before putting the plate of pizza next to my soda, and I slowly sat up and started eating. Forcing myself to take my time so I wouldn't shove my face with the cheesy goodness.
"Then let me critique your guys' work while I eat." I sniffed in between a couple bites.
"Here." Gaara said as he reached into his back pack and took out his homework while Sasuke handed me his from I don't know where and set it on top of Gaara's.
"We have to initial when we critique?" I asked when I noticed Gaara and Sasuke both put their initials on each others' homework. Then I realized I didn't see mine on the table. "And where's mine at?"
"Yours is already in your back pack ready to be turned in." Gaara said.
"And yes, it shows that they've been critiqued." Sasuke said right after. God, did they rehearse this shit while I was sleeping?
"Alright." I nodded and picked up Sasuke's as I leaned back in my chair while munching on the last slice of pizza.
You shouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to know how Sasuke writes if you know him; depressing, sad and extremely emotional. Leaves you wishing you could wish that the main character is real so you could just save them, give them a hug and let them know it's alright because they aren't alone anymore.
Hell, that's how from reading Sasuke's story, and you could just tell that he's writing about his deceased parents. But only people that know him could tell that about the story. I know I wasn't there when he needed me when his parents died, hell, I can't even remember what I was doing when it happened, but from what he's writing about, it's like he thought I didn't care and that hurt. It hurt a lot
I do remember him telling me, after he changed into some antisocial ass, but he was screaming it in my face because I confronted him in the boys locker room about it one day, possibly a year later or so. I only remember because I got my first black eye from him that day, one that wasn't inflicted on me by my father or bullies.
Oh, I remember what might have happened to make me not realize when Sasuke's parents died! I was being ganged up on after school that day and went home only to be beaten further by my father. I remember now because he threw his whiskey bottle at me and it hit me in the chest and then proceeded to break the bottom of another one and hit me in the head with it after cutting my arms with it. It was a sad day for both of us indeed.
When I was done reading the story, I felt like such an ass for giving him the cold shoulder half the time we were even around each other because of his being an ass all the time. But, I refused to say anything right now and put my initials on the front page with Gaara's and traded it with Gaara's story. I was, honestly, glad it wasn't as depressing as Sasuke's was, but it was still depressing. It talked about how the main character was a young girl living with bipolar disorder and her family puts her in the psych ward at the hospital and forgets about her, because by the end, there's no one there to pick her up so she has to live on the streets.
Sighing heavily, I initialed that story too and put it down on top of Sasuke's. It took me a moment to realize that the two were staring at me, probably waiting for me to critique their work verbally only because I had sat there for a very long time thinking about their stories, thinking about what to say so it wouldn't sound too offended, especially towards Sasuke.
"Well, first, Gaara, I love your story." I said, earning a scowl from Sasuke because I didn't talk about his first since his was the first I read. I have my reasons damn it. "I only had one question when I came up to the end, though."
"What would that be?" He asked, and it surprised me that he wasn't offended.
"Where were her parents and why did they not come to get her when she was released from the hospital?" I asked.
"Sasuke said the same thing." Gaara huffed. "I'll fix that tonight at home." He added as he picked up the pen and made a note of that so he wouldn't forget.
"And Sasuke … are you sure about your story?" I asked, mentally prepared for the physical hurt he'd probably give me. "It's too close to you, maybe if you change the character to a girl or something, change her name instead for it being something like Sara to maybe something like … Ellen or Alexandra. I know it was in first person, but it could be workable right? Please, don't get me wrong, I really loved your story, honest."
Sasuke sat there for a moment, staring at me. I could tell in his eyes he was contemplating on what I was saying. Seeing in his mind how that would work. And I couldn't get myself to relax until I saw him relax and I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding as he took the pen Gaara was using and did the same thing.
"Thank you Naruto." Sasuke said, before he got up and went to his room. Great, I felt like I was going to cry now.
"Naruto, it's okay." Gaara said before I looked at him as he got up and wrapped his arms around me. I guess I was crying.
"I hurt him, Gaara." I sniffed. "I shouldn't have said anything."
"No, you gave him an honest opinion, and so did I." Gaara said, and I nodded after a few minutes before getting up myself.
"It's really late, and I should get home soon." I sighed. "Don't you have to go home too?"
"Yea, Dad called while you were sleeping. He wanted me home before nine." Gaara said.
"Then we have half an hour to get you home. It's around eight thirty." I sniffed when I looked at the clock on the stove. "So, you go start packing up your stuff and I'll go get Sasuke becomes too engrossed in his homework." I added, giving him a small peck on the lips before I left the kitchen and down the hall to Sasuke's room, surprised that the door was open and I knocked on it softly to let him know I was there.
"Yea Naruto?" He said.
"It's about time to take Gaara home." I said, my voice low as I looked at the ground, my guilt making it hard to look at him at the moment.
"Alright, I'll be out there in a few minutes." Sasuke said as he turned in his chair, then after a moment of me not moving away from his doorway, Sasuke got up and walked up to me. I flinched a little bit when I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, though, and I wish I hadn't.
"Is everything okay Naruto?" He asked.
"I feel guilty for saying that about your story." I said, honestly.
"Don't be, that's what critiquing is all about. It's supposed to be harsh, and it's okay. I was thinking about doing that anyway after I printed it off." He shrugged, making me look up at him to see if he was telling the truth.
"Really?" I asked.
He nodded, and gave me a hug … wait, the non huggable Uchiha … gave me a hug!? This was all too weird, and too sudden, but either way, I found myself giving him a hug in return before letting go at the same time he did.
"Well, I need to go get changed if I'm going with you to take my boyfriend home." I smirked and turned to go to my room.
"Yea, and make sure you put something heavy on, there's a lot of snow on the ground." Sasuke said, making me freeze in my tracks.
"What!?" I found myself yelling, on accident and found my mouth being covered tightly by a pale hand a split second later.
"Please don't yell, Itachi isn't feeling good at all." Sasuke said in my ear, and I nodded before he let me go and I quietly went into my room where Gaara was getting a pair of socks on.
When I closed the door, I threw on a long sleeved shirt and a sweater that one of the girls got me along with one of the scarves they made and threw on a pair of socks as well. And honestly, I didn't think I bundled up enough. That's when I decided to take the scarf and sweater off and throw on two more long sleeved shirts and put the sweater and scarf back on
"Are you sure you want to bundle up that much?" Gaara chuckled as he got up off the bed and walked over to me, wrapping his arms around me and nibbled on my ear lobe.
"Yes, there's snow on the ground and I freeze easily." I pouted, but not without a throaty moan. He knew that's one of my sensitive spots that made my back shudder.
"But I'll be keeping you warm in the car all the way there." He whined, now taking my scarf off to nibble on my neck, then took my sweater off.
"Are you wanting me to freeze on my way back?" I whined.
"You'll be fine." He chuckled, now taking the two shirts I added off and put my sweater back over my head while I finished putting it on, pouting the whole time.
"You're so mean." I whimpered when he turned me around, threw the scarf over my head as he pined me against the wall by the door at the same time as he pushed his lips onto mine, hard, something I missed these last few days as I kissed him back, my mouth opening slightly as I gasped for a little bit of air and his tongue snaked its way into mine while my arms found themselves wrapping around his neck to bring him closer.
When the kiss broke, both of us were panting and would have gone further if there wasn't a knock on the door.
"I have fifteen minutes to get Gaara home." Sasuke said through the door and the two of us rushed out of the room and went to get our shoes on. One thing is for sure, we don't want to piss off Gaara's father by getting Gaara home late, last time that happened, he was grounded for a week. That was ages ago, and I didn't want that to start up again now.
"I'm telling my Dad we might be a few minutes late." Gaara said when we got outside to see both cars were still covered in snow.
"That might be a good idea, hey, Naruto, get the shovel from the garage while I clean my car off." Sasuke suggested, and I nodded as I went to the garage and got the shove, mumbling a string of curses under my breath along the way.
It took us fifteen minutes to get the driveway behind the cars cleaned since I kept stopping to give my freezing hands a break every few minutes while Gaara and Sasuke cleaned off the cars. We eventually had to bring cold water out so we could even open the doors since they were frozen shut. Gaara's father had given us an extra half hour or so to give us time to be able to even get in the car so we could leave. I was glad for that, but I wish Sasuke was shoveling his driveway while Gaara and I cleaned the car off, but whatever.
"Okay, we got the car cleaned off, how's your end Naruto?" Sasuke said when I heard the engine turn on for the second time, the first time was to make sure the car would work in these conditions and he turned it off after five minutes to get it warmed up and only turned it off since I wasn't done yet when he asked the first time.
"It's as good as I'll be willing to get it Sasuke." I snapped, throwing the shovel on the other side of the driveway towards the house to get rid of it and shoved my hands up my armpits to get my frozen fingers warm.
"I'll finish tomorrow." He shrugged, picking up the shovel and putting it up by the house as Gaara and I climbed into the back seat of his car and he climbed in. We were all buckled up by the time he was backing out of the driveway and headed towards Gaara's house.
"Here." Gaara whispered to me as he grabbed both of my hands and rubbed his against mine, breathing his hot breath onto my fingers as I let him warm my hands up for me and I smiled.
"Don't start making out in my car." I heard Sasuke chuckle a moment later, ruining the moment Gaara and I were having once again and I glared at him, my face probably red as blood.
"What, like this?" Gaara asked, removing one of his hands from mine and pulled me into a kiss that I welcomed completely, moaning when he licked my bottom lip and I happily answered his invitation and let my mouth open slightly.
"Guys! Come on! I'm driving here." Sasuke whined and both Gaara and I chuckled at his comments as we broke the kiss a moment later.
"Good, then take your time taking him home." I smirked, though I wish that were the case.
When we got to Gaara's, I thought it was too short of a drive, but that's usually how it is when we take Gaara home from being with us all day. Just like it took forever to get to his house when I was going to be with him there all day. Either way, I wish we were together longer than this since I slept all damn day. It pissed me off too and I think he noticed it. That's when I realize after a few minutes of standing by his door inside the house so I wouldn't freeze while Sasuke waited for me in the car, that Gaara was digging into his pockets for something.
"What you looking for Gaara?" I asked a few moments later until I saw Gaara's bottle of sleeping pills in his hand.
"Tsunade said I could give you half a pill if you couldn't sleep tonight past ten." He said, opening the bottle and handing me one that was already cut in half.
"She really said that?" I asked.
"Yea, if you want, you can ask Sasuke, he was in the same room when she said it." Gaara said, closing my hand around the pill so I wouldn't drop it.
"I believe you." I nodded, looking down as I watched him close the bottle and put it back in his pocket before his arms wrapped around me once again.
"Sleep well Naru, call me when you wake up okay?" Gaara whispered in my ear and held me tighter.
"I will." I nodded, hugging him back just as tight before we gave each other a good bye and a good night kiss, earning a groan from Kankuro who was sitting on the couch. I smirked when the two of us broke our kiss and I looked at him.
"Sasuke said the same thing." I said, smirking still as I put the pill in my pocket and turned to open the door to go back to the car.
"Good!" Kankuro said, though he just chuckled a moment later as I went outside, waving my good byes and closed the door, rushing to the car carefully so I wouldn't fall and climbed into the warm car.. God, I wish it was summer already.
It was quiet when Sasuke and I drove back to our house. Mostly because I didn't know what to talk about and I really didn't want to bring up the subject about our English homework again. I knew he was upset about it, but I was really afraid of what he'd say about mine. Sure I talked about my Dad a lot in the story about how he was when I was between the ages of eleven and twelve; AKA, worst year ever, under an alias name of Menma Kazahiko and my Dad as Shinori Kazahiko.
And to be honest, I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't realize the car was stopped until I heard the engine turn off, bringing me out of my thoughts to look around to see we were really back at Sasuke's house.
"Oh, I guess I dozed off while you were driving." I laughed lightly as I scratched the back of my head and got out of the car when he did.
"Hey, Naruto." Sasuke said, making me stop in my tracks to go home.
"Yea?"
"Thanks for your critique." He said, once again and I waved.
"No problem Sasuke. I'll come back in the morning to get my stuff I left." I said.
"I'll make sure it's in the room okay?" Sasuke said as he waved back.
"Thanks!" I smiled and rushed over to the house so I could get into the warmth it promised, digging for my house key that was in my pocket -yes, my night pants had pockets, which is why I loved them so much- and unlocked the door, turning on the outside light so Dad could see when he got home and I kicked my shoes off before walking further into the living room, closing and locking the door behind me as I headed towards the kitchen to get something to drink.
I was about to open the fridge when I noticed something was odd; the back door was unlocked and slightly open. No wonder the house was cold. But when I went to go close it, I saw that the door wasn't forced open, so someone had to have a key to get in.
Panicking, I reached into my other pocket for my phone to call either Sasuke or Dad, I don't know which I was going to call first, but once I unlocked the screen, I heard something shift behind me and before I could turn around I felt something glass break on the back of my head. The last thing I remember, was seeing my contacts on my phone opened as my phone fell from my hands just before I hit the floor and everything around me going black.