Author's note: Today can go fuck itself. 2023 can fuck right off. I'm completely done with today. Have a longer read this time.

Thanks to the following reviewers: KitsuneJen; sasunaru1214; solitare1; 666snoopy; thecloudgazingfreak; Kalos; Nellana; Lover of Emotions; SarahNThatcher

Warnings: Violence; attempted sexual assault, but it doesn't fully occur; time skips

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like this chapter!


Chapter 1: Uncertainty

The class was noisier than usual, he noted absently, staring out of the window. They were already loud on any given day, but now they were actually worse – a feat he hadn't thought was possible, despite the fact that he'd been sharing a class with the rest of them for several years now.

He caught snippets of the conversations going on around him; their voices loud enough to reach him.

"Did you hear? We're supposed to get a new student in our class today!"

"What, now? It's the middle of April; why enrol now?"

"Yuki-chan says a new family moved into her street a few days ago and the son's around our age. Maybe he's going to be dropped in our class?"

"Oh man, it's been a while since we last had a new student in our class. The last one was Uchiha."

"Let's hope the new student is more approachable than Uchiha is."

A hush fell over the students when the door swung open, their sensei entering and calling out for everyone to shut their mouths.

"Good morning, everyone. As you can see, we have a new student joining our class today," Iruka announced, supporting his hands on his desk. "His name is Uzumaki Naruto and he moved into our town four days ago. I hope you'll welcome him."

Sasuke turned his head, figuring he should at least know how the new guy looked. The new student stood in front of the class, clearly nervous as his eyes darted from one side to the other, taking in everyone.

He was incredibly blond, was the first thing the Alpha noticed. The colour reminded him a bit of Deidara's blond hair, though this guy's hair had a more golden tint to it. It was quite messy as well as if he'd just run his hand through it when he got up this morning and called it a day. Sasuke estimated he was a bit shorter than him, slimmer too.

For a brief moment their eyes met when the new guy bowed and he noticed they were a striking blue, like the colour the sky turned into when there was no cloud in sight and the sun had free reign. They were definitely a lot nicer to look at than the pale blue ones of that Yamanaka girl. Their gazes broke when Uzumaki rose up again and Sasuke turned his attention back to the window, staring out of it and waiting bored for their sensei to finally start their class.

Uzumaki was directed to sit next to Inuzaka and when he sat down next to the Beta boy, Sasuke caught a whiff of his scent: sharp citrus and sweet apple.

An Omega.

With the introduction over, Iruka finally started their new lesson and Sasuke uttered an inaudible sigh, turning to the right chapter in his book.

Ignoring how Uzumaki sneaked a couple of glances at him throughout the lesson. He was used to those looks; he ignored them just like he did with the others.


"Anything interesting happened this week?" Gaara asked casually, putting his signature underneath some papers.

Capping his water bottle, Sasuke looked up and raised an eyebrow. "You're going to ask me that every week?"

The red haired man shrugged and leant across the counter. "If I don't, Temari's just going to keep pestering me about it."

"I really don't get her interest in my life," Sasuke muttered, frowning.

Gaara's sister had been all up in his business the moment the Alpha had introduced them and at times that became very annoying, especially when she insisted he should go out more.

"I honestly think she adopted you as her third brother in her mind," Gaara said dryly. "Or maybe she hopes you can replace Kankuro, because she thinks he's an utter disappointment."

Sasuke snorted, a tad amused. While Temari and Gaara spent most of their days at the dojo, Kankuro didn't seem to be that interested in it, preferring to work on his skills in puppetry and teaching woodwork in evening school. Temari had lamented more than once that she was fed up with how nonchalant Kankuro treated everything that had to do with the dojo.

"So, can I tell her anything new or should I disappoint her once more?" Gaara smirked.

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke thought about the question before, for some reason, answering, "A new guy joined my class this week."

"Oh?" Intrigue flared up in Gaara's eyes. "What's his name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto. Moved into town around a week ago or so," Sasuke replied and shrugged.

The blond student had been the talk of the class the entire week, everybody eager to meet the new one and get to know him better. So far he seemed to spend most of his time with Inuzaka and Nara.

"Is that new enough to satisfy your sister's curiosity?" he sighed and stood up, deciding his break had taken long enough.

Gaara cocked his head to the right. "For now at least," he replied. "She'll probably insist you get to know the guy better, though, once she's done mooning about the fact that you've actually got something new to tell for once."

"She can fuck off," Sasuke muttered, rolling his shoulders. Half an hour longer and then he would call it quits for today.

"Oh, before you start, you up for joining us for dinner tonight?" Gaara inquired, ignoring the telephone ringing.

"Depends on who's 'us'."

"Just me and Temari. Kankuro's fucked off to god knows where," Gaara snorted, looking unbothered by his brother's absence.

"Sure, Kakashi's meeting up with some old classmates of his anyway." It would save him from having to prepare something for himself at least and neither of the Sand siblings were bad cooks, so he was guaranteed a nice dinner.

"You're going to make her absolutely delirious now," Gaara smirked. "First something new to tell and now joining us for dinner – she might fear the world is about to end."

"You and your sister both suck," Sasuke told him and returned to the tatami where his partner was waiting for him.

Guess he should prepare himself for a mini interrogation tonight at dinner.


"I'm so glad you're finally showing interest in someone!" Temari basically chirped, filling their plates with the yakisoba she'd prepared.

"I'm not showing interest in anyone, I just mentioned there's a new guy in my class," Sasuke sighed, accepting his plate.

"Yes, which coming from you is basically a huge admission of interest," she insisted; her blonde hair loose for once, brushing across her shoulders. "Gaara and I have been asking you for years if something interesting happened to you and you never said anything! This is like a huge milestone that needs to be celebrated!"

"Ever considered that saying stupid shit like that is the reason why I don't want to talk about whatever happened this or that week?" Sasuke asked calmly, while Gaara was smirking behind his glass of water.

"You never want to talk about anything," she shot back, wrinkling her nose. She'd removed her lipstick already, but was still wearing mascara and eyeliner; the dark line making her light coloured eyes pop.

"Did you have to tell her about the new guy?" Sasuke asked annoyed, shooting a glare at the red haired man.

Gaara just raised his hands, a faux innocent look on his face. "Look, if I have to choose between her pestering me about you the entire night or selling you out, then yes, I'm selling you out to her."

"This is how trust issues develop," Sasuke told him sourly.

"For them to develop, you had to have trust in others first," Gaara retorted.

It was a testament to how well they knew each other that Sasuke let him get away with that comment.

"So tell me, what's the boy like?" Temari leant forwards eagerly, her eyes shining with excitement.

"I only know that his name's Uzumaki Naruto and that he moved into town around a week ago. That's it," Sasuke said dismissively, hoping she would leave it at that.

Fat chance of that.

"Can't you at least pretend to be a real human guy and talk to the new student once?" she asked exasperatedly. "God knows what he must think of you now."

He bared his teeth at her. "Since when have I ever cared about what someone else thinks?"

"You're hopeless," she sighed, but she stopped pestering him about it.


He only vaguely registered what Morino was saying as he started to read the instructions for the next history project. He was probably talking about how both people in the group should pull their weight, like he always did when he handed out projects.

That didn't matter to Sasuke. Kakashi had managed to convince his teachers to let him work on the group projects alone, seeing as he had absolutely zero interest in working with somebody. He utterly despised the thought of having the majority of his grade depend on someone else and he wasn't about to give any of the other students an opportunity to keep pestering him afterwards.

Some of the girls were already annoying enough to deal with, without them possibly working together with him.

Thanks to his high grades, his teachers hadn't put up much of a fuss and had acquiesced to letting him work alone on whatever project they would come up with. Some students – mainly the girls – had attempted at the start to convince him to work together on projects, but he had quickly put a stop to that. Nowadays they knew better than to pester him, even going as far as actually giving his desk a wide berth when they looked around for partners, as if they thought he would attack them if they came too close.

Perhaps he could do something with the Heian period? The Tokugawa and Meiji periods were going to be chosen a lot, he suspected, simply because they were amongst the most well-known ones. The Heian period had its own interesting events, though, such as the Hogen rebellion, which had created the foundation for the dominance of the samurai clans in later years. He could make his project about that rebellion, he supposed. That should be interesting and he should be able to find enough information about it.

"You want to be my partner for this project?"

He could look up the information on his computer first and supplement it with the information he could retrieve from the books in the library. It might take him a couple of late afternoons, but he should be able to get everything done on time.

When the shadow in front of his desk didn't want to move, Sasuke realised that he had been talking to him. Placing the paper down, Sasuke looked up at Uzumaki, who hovered in front of him. His fingers were tightly clenched around his own paper, wrinkling the document. The tips of his ears were quite red for some reason and as Sasuke watched, the other one slightly twitched, but still didn't move away.

Sasuke was so bewildered by his unexpected presence that he could only utter, "What."

"Eh, I was wondering whether you wanted to work on this project with me?" Uzumaki smiled weakly; his fingers tightening around the paper even further. If he wasn't careful he was going to rip it completely.

The rest of the class had taken notice of their interaction. All around them the noise died down as people started talking in hushed voices, staring wide-eyed at the two. Some girls started to giggle, hiding behind their hands, but their annoying giggling wasn't so easily tempered. Haruno nudged Yamanaka; a gleeful grin unfolding on her face as she kept shooting glances at them, like she was expecting Sasuke to fly off the handle any moment now.

By now the whispers and stares were far from subtle and Uzumaki hunched his shoulders; an uncomfortable look crossing his face, souring his scent.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, considering the situation. There was no reason for Uzumaki to want to partner with him. He'd been part of their class for a couple of weeks already, no doubt the others had already warned him about Sasuke. In those weeks Uzumaki had already started to get along rather well with the others, so there was no reason why he would seek out Sasuke for anything. Yet here he was, still standing in front of the desk in spite of the hushed voices and the giggling that was growing in volume.

There was no reason why Sasuke should agree to do the project with him when he was better off working on his own and yet …

"Sure," he found himself agreeing.

If Uzumaki turned out to be a crappy partner, that would only confirm what Sasuke knew: that he was better of working on his own. If Uzumaki ended up being a decent partner after all, then at least they could divide the work between them and he would be finished faster.

When Uzumaki just kept standing there, staring at him with his mouth open, Sasuke couldn't help but become slightly irritated. Wasn't he the one who had suggested they would work together? Why was he still standing?

"You're going to sit down or not?" He scowled, pushing his pencase more to his side.

Almost as if in a rush – or perhaps worried Sasuke would change his mind – Uzumaki hurried to sit down next to him, putting the paper with their instructions down on the desk. He made one fruitless try to decrease it before giving up, turning slightly to Sasuke.

"So you got anything in mind?" he questioned.

The giggling stopped abruptly as one by one, the other students realised that Sasuke was actually agreeing to do a project with someone. He threw a quick scowl at the ones who kept gaping like morons at them and that was a sign for everyone to finally start minding their own damn business again.

"The Heian period," Sasuke said curtly. "The Hogen rebellion would be a good fit for this project."

"The Hogen rebellion," Uzumaki echoed, blinking a couple of times in obvious cluelessness. "Didn't that have something to do with two former emperors? No?"

Sasuke pursed his lips together. "Are you any good at history?"

"Decent," Uzumaki smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. He perked up slightly. "I'm good at researching, though! I can do my share of the work, don't worry!"

That remained to be seen, of course.


"I don't know yet how late I'll be home tonight," Kakashi informed him as he scrolled down to read something on his phone.

"That's fine, I'll be home a bit later either way," Sasuke muttered, refilling his mug with coffee.

"Oh?"

"History project. I'll be at the library," Sasuke said, checking the clock. He still had a bit before he had to leave.

"You're doing your project at the library?" Kakashi questioned and the faint hint of intrigue had Sasuke closing his eyes; irritation already bubbling up. "Don't you usually just check out the books and do your projects at home?"

"Can't this time," Sasuke replied and while his tone made it very clear that he wasn't interested in continuing this particular conversation, naturally Kakashi wouldn't leave it alone.

He never did. Even after being snubbed time and time again, the guy just couldn't leave things alone. Sasuke swore he had to have some kind of death wish, but also the greatest luck on earth that nobody had yet tried to kill him for being so goddamn aggravating.

"And why not exactly?" Kakashi leant forwards, lifting one eyebrow. "The librarian suddenly snapped out of her crush on you and won't allow you to take out books anymore?"

"What does it even matter? You're not going to be home early anyways," Sasuke said irritated.

"When my ward suddenly changes his routine, it is my duty to ensure that nothing bad is occurring," Kakashi said solemnly, but his eyes were glittering, because the idiot could never take anything serious.

"I'm not changing anything; I'm just doing my project at the library, that's all," Sasuke said tersely and drained his mug, though even an extra boost of coffee wouldn't be enough to deal with Kakashi.

The guy was like a damn bloodhound: as soon as he smelt something interesting, he wouldn't let himself get side-tracked at all.

"Right, and why the sudden change?" Kakashi pressed.

"You're very annoying."

"Yes, you do mention that occasionally. Still want to know the answer."

Sasuke flicked his eyes up to the ceiling, asking for patience of whatever being would be gracious enough to give it to him. There were times, especially now when Kakashi refused to just mind his own business, that he wondered whether it wouldn't have been easier for him if he had just gone to live with one of his distant family members. He didn't think they would have been this noisy.

"I'm doing my history project with someone else, so we're meeting up at the library," he answered curtly and stood up, dumping his empty mug in the sink.

Kakashi furrowed his eyebrows and adjusted his mask. "I thought we had an agreement with your teachers that you could do the projects on your own? You want me to go talk with your teacher?"

"One, I don't need you to talk to anyone, I'm not a toddler," Sasuke said annoyed. "Secondly, I agreed to work with someone on this project; the teacher doesn't have anything to do with it."

"You actually willingly are working with someone?" Kakashi asked baffled before his eyes crinkled in visible amusement. "So when can I expect to meet them, hm? I got to know the person who made you come out of your shell finally!"

"Get fucked!" Sasuke snapped and marched out of the kitchen before that idiot could think of more bullshit to spout.

Kakashi wasn't going to leave this alone for quite a while, Sasuke could already predict that. He was just as bad as Temari was in that regard, getting excited about the stupidest things.

"Remember to change your face before you meet up with them! You don't want to scare them off!" Kakashi's sing-song voice unfortunately managed to reach him right before he left.

Sasuke slammed the front door shut behind him in reply.


Uzumaki wasn't a bad partner. He did his own share of the work and after the one time Sasuke had made it clear he wasn't a fan of tardiness unless he'd been notified on time, he was also on time for every meeting at the library.

But he could talk. A lot. He always seemed to find something to talk about, no matter how dull the day had been up until that point. During one of their meetings, in a flash of morbid curiosity, Sasuke had let him run his mouth to see how long it would take him to run out of steam. As it turned out Uzumaki was more than capable of chatting a whole hour and even longer, only quietening down when Sasuke had shoved the history book in his direction. It should be physically impossible to talk so much for so long without even appearing slightly winded, but Uzumaki somehow managed to accomplish that.

He was quite disorganised as well, to Sasuke's quiet despair. Even when only using his notebook, his pencase and the history books they had collected, somehow Uzumaki managed to take up more than half of the table; one pen landing in that corner, another pen against the edge, a pencil in the middle of the table … It was a mystery how he never lost anything in spite of how frazzled his setup looked like.

Still in spite of how much he could talk and how disorganised he appeared to be, they did work well together, making good progress on their assignment. Uzumaki wasn't dumb either. He might not know as much about history as Sasuke did, but he was quick on the uptake and as he proved, quite adapted at doing research. To be honest, there were worse people Sasuke could have ended up working with. Uzumaki was decent, even respecting his privacy and not texting him inane things as Sasuke had worried he would do once presented with the Alpha's phone number.

Sasuke couldn't even remember the last time he had handed anyone his number. His only contacts were Kakashi and Gaara and that was it. With Uzumaki sometimes having club activities after classes, however, it had been easier to give his number to him just in case the other one was running late.

Checking his phone, Sasuke's frown only deepened when the screen showed no new messages. He and Uzumaki were set to meet up after class again to work on their project. He knew the other one had volleyball practice, but with them being almost finished, Sasuke had agreed to already make a start on the last part and Uzumaki would join him once he was done with his afterschool activities. Bar that one time, Uzumaki had always been on time or had warned him through text if he was going to be later, which made his lack of any sort of text quite odd now. He should have already been here, but the seat remained empty and Sasuke's phone didn't buzz with any incoming texts.

He hesitated for a moment longer, before he pursed his lips and slipped his phone in his pocket. He spared a moment to place his bag on his chair – though at this hour not many students were still in the library, so the risk of any of them tripping over his bag was nihil – and then made his way into the corridor. Had Uzumaki lost track of time after training had ended because he was chatting with the others?

The sound of annoying taunting laughter coming from around the corner had him rolling his eyes, but the yelling following directly afterwards had him stiffening.

"Get the fuck away from me!"

That was Uzumaki's voice.

Without thinking twice Sasuke rushed around the corner – and saw red when he realised what was happening. Uzumaki was flat on the ground with a grey haired guy right on top of him. The guy's hands were wrestling with Uzumaki's belt while two others – a fat, orange haired guy and a guy wearing his dark hair in a ponytail – held Uzumaki down by his legs, preventing him from lashing out. The guy with the ponytail had blood dripping down his nose, showing that Uzumaki had already put up quite a fight.

Instinct took over. The sight of Uzumaki pinned to the floor while three filthy cockroaches were about to assault him flipped a switch in Sasuke. An enraged roar erupted from him as he flew towards the group, snatching the grey haired guy by his collar and throwing him right against the wall.

"The fuck you think you're - "

An embarrassing squeal left the fat guy's mouth when Sasuke's fist buried itself straight into his gut, forcing him to buckle through his knees. Sasuke grabbed his shoulders and smashed his knee into his nose. As the guy screamed and clutched his nose, Sasuke punched him in his face, knocking him out. One of the others tried to attack him from behind, but Sasuke snarled and whirled around, sending him flying with a well-aimed kick in his stomach. Before Ponytail Guy could get up, Sasuke slammed his head against the wall and grinded his face into it until he stopped moaning.

"You think you're so - "

The last guy caught Sasuke's fist fully in his mouth and when he staggered back, he spat out a tooth, leaving a bloody gap behind in his front teeth. Sasuke didn't give him a change to recover; a red filter seemingly covering his eyes as he kicked the guy again and again, remembering how he had sat so triumphantly on top of Uzumaki, his filthy hands tugging at Uzumaki's belt as if he had any right to touch him. Skin split underneath his knuckles, but he kept going until the guy tried to run away. One kick against his lower back sent him sprawling on the floor with a muffled groan; his shoes skidding against the tiles. He didn't get much further.

It was only when the guy crumpled on the floor, unconscious, that Sasuke stopped, panting, and took a deep breath, taking in what he had done. All three of them were out for the count, sporting various dark reddish spots which would no doubt turn an ugly dark colour soon once the bruises settled in. Their faces were covered with blood, the dark red liquid smeared across the floor in some places, but Sasuke couldn't find it in him to care. He hadn't been this violent in years, but they had had it coming after what they had tried to do. To think that if he had been just five minutes later, they might have raped Uzumaki …

Uzumaki.

Sasuke turned around, belatedly realising that an Alpha whose body was still singing with bloodlust might not be best suited to deal with a possibly traumatised Omega. The scent of blood, which just moments ago had only pushed him to keep beating the shit out of them, now was revolting and a quick wipe across his mouth transferred the drops of blood from his lips to his hand.

Uzumaki was still on the floor, but sitting against the wall now; his entire body tense and his face oddly flushed as he stared at Sasuke. His mind no longer clouded with fury, the next intake of breath told him exactly why Uzumaki appeared so strangely flushed.

He was in the beginning stages of a heat.

That realisation hit Sasuke like a slap in the face. Suddenly it was all he could think of, making him focus on the scent Uzumaki was starting to blast off. It was still his familiar citrus and apple scent, but more forceful this time, sweeter and much more potent than Sasuke had ever expected it to be. There had been other students before who had entered a heat while still at school, but none of their scents had ever been this powerful, this strangely alluring.

He switched over to breathing subtly through his mouth. The last thing Uzumaki needed now was an Alpha being distracted by his scent even if Sasuke would never harm him in any way. Uzumaki couldn't know that, though, not after what he had just been through.

"You okay?" he asked, softening his voice, unwilling to scare the other one even further.

Uzumaki blinked and his next exhale was shaky, too uneven for Sasuke's liking. "Yeah," he answered, dragging a hand over his face as if to hide behind it. He started shivering, as if he was cold; shock must be settling in.

Sasuke hesitated. He couldn't leave Uzumaki behind here, not when he was this vulnerable, but would the other one allow him near him right now? Sasuke hadn't exactly been the epitome of restraint just now and it frankly surprised him Uzumaki hadn't run away screaming yet after Sasuke had been so vicious with the other three.

He slowly walked over to Uzumaki and kept a safe distance between them when he knelt down, but even with his careful approach Uzumaki was still startled. His head shot up, blue eyes locking onto black ones, but he made no move to last out, simply tightening his hands around his knees.

"Do you need me to call someone?" Sasuke asked concerned.

He had no clue how quickly a heat fully set in, but perhaps he could accompany Uzumaki to the nurse's office while he waited for someone to pick him up? He would offer to drive him home himself, but he didn't think that would be a good idea right now.

Uzumaki shook his head. "No, my – my mum, she's coming to pick me up. I called her because of …" he trailed off, reddening as he waved his hand awkwardly over his body. He didn't mention his heat, but he didn't need to; his scent was obvious enough.

"I can wait with you outside if you want to. I don't think these three will wake up any time soon, but you shouldn't be alone right now," Sasuke offered, casting a quick glance at the unmoving group behind them.

After the beating he gave them, it was very doubtful they would wake up in the next ten minutes, but Uzumaki shouldn't be alone right now, not when he was in such a vulnerable state. If these three arseholes had thought they could have got away with raping another student inside the school's walls, what was to stop another creep from trying to take advantage of Uzumaki outside? Sasuke would never forgive himself if something would happen to Uzumaki while he could have prevented it. Even if Uzumaki would reject his offer, he'd keep an eye on him from a distance until his mother arrived.

"Yeah, that'd- that'd be great, thanks," Uzumaki answered; his voice hollow.

It made Sasuke's heart clench. Uzumaki had always been so full of life every moment they had spent together, it was disheartening to hear him so empty now. Even when he didn't know the Omega that well, he knew this wasn't how he was supposed to sound like. If those arseholes had managed to break Uzumaki's spirit … A beating would be the least of their worries.

"You need some help getting up?" Sasuke asked when he spotted the wince passing across Uzumaki's face when he moved slightly.

"No, I've got it."

As soon as he got up, however, his knees buckled and he immediately sank down with a bitten off gasp. Sasuke caught him before he could fall down all the way, keeping him up right with an arm around his waist while throwing his arm around Sasuke's neck to balance his weight better.

"This all right?" Sasuke questioned, peeking at Uzumaki.

He had mainly reacted on instinct, realising too late that an Alpha's touch might be the last thing Uzumaki would want right now. Instead of pushing him away, though, Uzumaki swayed closer to him, bringing his face near Sasuke's neck. This close to the Omega, there was no escaping his strong scent at all and Sasuke's breathing turned completely shallow; puffs of breath escaping through his slightly parted lips.

Uzumaki shook his head abruptly and roughly replied, "Yeah, this is all right."

Slowly, pausing a couple of times when a cramp seemed to assault Uzumaki, they made their way out of the school and into the parking lot. Sasuke kept an eye on Uzumaki's bag, ready to catch it the moment Uzumaki would drop it, but the blond kept a good grip on it. As they stood there waiting, Uzumaki kept his entire body pressed up against Sasuke. His body radiated heat like a furnace and Sasuke stupidly wondered whether this was normal. With Uzumaki leaning heavily against him, the occasional soft hum leaving him, Sasuke had to acknowledge that he didn't know that much about Omega after all.

He stilled when a warm nose nuzzled the side of his neck and when he glanced at Uzumaki from the corner of his eye, the Omega had his eyes closed and an almost dopey grin on his face as he rubbed his nose in Sasuke's neck for a little while. Nobody had ever come this close to Sasuke; perhaps his mother had once upon a time, but he couldn't remember it. He stood there, uncertain what to do, but thankfully Uzumaki pulled away after a short while, seemingly content to just keep himself plastered against Sasuke.

Did his Alpha scent have a calming effect on Uzumaki perhaps? It seemed like that, judging by the gentle sway of Uzumaki's body and the way he stood completely relaxed next to Sasuke in spite of what had just happened.

Sasuke was torn out of his contemplation of Uzumaki when a car turned around the corner with screeching tires, stopping right in front of them. A beautiful red haired woman rushed from behind the wheel, making a beeline for Uzumaki. It was only because of the obvious resemblance that Sasuke didn't react defensively when she closed her arms around Uzumaki and started gently tugging him to the car.

Her purple eyes were piercing when she regarded him with her arms carefully wrapped around her son. "You stayed with him the entire time?"

"Yes, I did." He eyed the tense set of her mouth warily, wondering whether he would get the time to explain in case she made the wrong assumption.

She gave him a sharp nod. "Thank you for staying with him."

She turned around then, obviously dismissing him as she helped Uzumaki get into the car. Blue eyes met black eyes and then they were gone.


When Sasuke returned to the hallway, wondering whether he should inform the principal first or call the police, Morino was there, a severe frown on his face as he studied the group. They were slowly regaining consciousness again, soft groans of pain escaping them.

Upon hearing his footsteps, Morino turned his head and looked at Sasuke. "You know anything about this, Uchiha-san?"

"They tried to sexually assault another student. I stopped them," Sasuke answered frankly.

Morino glanced between him and the group; his face completely unreadable. "I see. Why don't you go talk to the principal while I take these three on a trip to the nurse's office first?"

While it was worded as a question, there was no doubt it was actually an order and Sasuke nodded, turning around. He didn't think he was going to get away with what he had done – he had done a pretty bad number on them – but he didn't regret it one bit either. He could get expelled for using violence, but at least he had managed to prevent them from going through with their sick plan.

The principal was a very imposing, tall, broad shouldered man only known as A. None of the students knew his full name; that mystery coupled with his thick muscles often sent the rumour mill in a tizzy as one student after the other came up with the most outrageous claims as to why such a buff man would be a principal. Sasuke never paid those rumours any mind; A had listened to him and Kakashi when the latter had explained why it would be better for Sasuke to work on his own and A had respected that. After that one meeting Sasuke hadn't had any run-ins with the principal.

Until now that was.

A listened quietly to him as Sasuke explained why he had beaten the crap out of the three guys. He left Uzumaki's name out of it, only referring to him as the student they had tried to assault. He had no idea whether Uzumaki wanted others to know it had been him they had attacked and Sasuke didn't want to make that decision for him.

When Sasuke fell quiet, A leant back in his chair; the material groaning a bit. He rapped his fingers against his desk, staring at Sasuke. Others would have felt intimidated, because A was by no means a weak looking man, but Sasuke simply returned the gaze as respectfully as he could. He had told his piece and he would accept any punishment that resulted from his actions as long as that didn't include offering his apologies to those three cockroaches.

"You know we don't tolerate any kind of violence at this school," A started and sighed. "I have to say of all the students that might end up in my office for beating up three others, I didn't expect it to be you, Uchiha-san."

Sasuke kept quiet.

"All the same," A continued; his lips thinning, "we don't tolerate any sort of assault, physical, sexual or otherwise. While I don't condone your use of violence, you did so in defence of another student."

"So you believe me," Sasuke said.

To be honest he hadn't been certain whether A would have taken his word over that of the group. He hadn't yet heard the story from the three guys yet and they might try to spin the story into something entirely else.

"I see no reason why you would lie about something like this," A said and raised an eyebrow. "Especially when there was a witness present who can tell me whether or not you're telling me the truth. So far you've had an impeccable record at this school, while the three in question have a less than … recommendable record so to speak."

Sasuke wasn't surprised.

"That said, violence isn't exactly a solution that we encourage here," A remarked. "Given the circumstances, however, I am willing to turn a blind eye to this."

Sasuke couldn't help but stare at him befuddled, having expected some sort of punishment at least.

"This isn't standard procedure," A warned him. "And this doesn't give you blanket authorisation to just go around and beat up other students. As you committed this act in defence of someone else, however, and because so far you have a clean record, you won't receive a punishment this time. I will deal with the others. You're dismissed."

"Thank you," Sasuke said and bowed before leaving the office.

Outside in the cool hallway, he let out his breath slowly, clenching and unclenching his fists. He couldn't believe he had got out of this conversation with no punishment and with no call to Kakashi. He supposed having a clean record and being known as a very diligent student had worked in his favour this time.

To his surprise his bag with the rest of his belongings were waiting for him at the empty secretary desk. The librarian must have been asked to collect this stuff and drop it off here. A quick check on his watch revealed that the library had closed half an hour ago. At least his bag wasn't locked up in the library for a whole night.

Shrugging on his bag, he walked outside and habitually checked his phone. He paused when he saw three missed calls and one unread message from Gaara.

Gaara 05.55 p.m.

You okay?

Deciding it was easier to call, Sasuke dialled Gaara's number while he made his way to the parking lot, fishing his car key out of the front pocket of his bag.

"Everything all right?" Gaara inquired, picking up after the second ring.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

His car was one of the few remaining and he threw his bag in the boot before sliding behind the wheel. He didn't start the car just yet, simply leant back in his seat.

"You didn't show up for the training tonight," Gaara told him and fuck, yes, he had forgotten about that.

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, I've completely forgotten about that," he sighed irritated.

"You know I don't make a problem out of that, but it isn't like you not to show up without any warning," Gaara said. "It's why I called."

"You worried about me?"

"You know Temari would have my balls if she found out I didn't make any attempt to discover if something had happened to you."

Sasuke snorted, rolling his head against the headrest. Temari did have the tendency to get worried about the smallest things at times.

"You're sure everything's okay?"

"I beat the shit out of three guys at school," Sasuke replied; the words leaving him before he could reconsider.

There was a short pause before Gaara said, "You want to tell me what happened?"

That was one of the good things about Gaara, Sasuke decided. Even after the older man had caught Sasuke as a thirteen year old beating the hell out of older teenagers in an alley, the red haired Alpha had never once judged him. All he had done was suggest another outlet for his rage, steering it into something Sasuke could do without destroying himself.

"I work on a history assignment with the new guy, Uzumaki," Sasuke started to explain.

Gaara hummed, but didn't interrupt, not even at the mention of Sasuke working together with someone.

"He was later than usual so I went looking for him and when I found him, they – " Sasuke took a deep breath, forcing his hands to relax, "a group of three guys were about to rape him. He started his heat and they must have smelt that, I don't know, but they were right on top of him when I found him. I threw them off of him and beat them up until they could no longer move. I stayed with Uzumaki until his mum could pick him up."

"Are you in trouble now?"

"No, the principal is letting it slide because I defended Uzumaki," Sasuke answered and ran his free hand through his hair.

"You did a good thing, Sasuke," Gaara said quietly.

Sasuke smiled humourlessly. "I think I went a little overboard, though."

"Nah, if they're going to be such disgusting pieces of shits, they had it coming," Gaara stated firmly. "You protected him, Sasuke, that's all that matters."

"Yeah," Sasuke said distantly, staring blankly in front of him. "I guess so."


You protected him.

You protected him.

You protected him.

The days following had that little sentence on repeat in his mind. It was stupid, inane, to obsess so much over three insignificant words, but to Sasuke, they meant everything. He had been too weak to protect his family that fateful night, hadn't been able to do anything but cower in his room and listen to his family fighting with those burglars. He hadn't been strong enough, not good enough to help his parents and his brother when they had needed him the most.

He had managed to protect Uzumaki, though. Maybe he could have been even quicker, preventing those pieces of shits from ever laying hands on the Omega, but he had managed to stop them from doing even worse. He had been able to do now what he hadn't been able to do when he'd been twelve and that thought …

It settled something in him, made him feel less useless. He wasn't worthless anymore, wasn't that scared, weak little boy of back then. He had been able to protect Uzumaki, had stopped those three from hurting him in the worst way.

That had to count for something, make up for how little he had managed to do years ago.

He could do this, protect someone. His older brother had been the one to protect him when he'd been younger, but now he was on his own and Sasuke had shown he wasn't that weak after all.

He could do this.


Uzumaki was absent throughout the rest of the week, but on Monday he was back, albeit still not looking completely all right. He was slumped in his chair, looking exhausted, but the traumatised look had left his eyes, which Sasuke was glad about.

Ignoring the way Inuzuka fell quiet once Sasuke halted in front of their desk, Sasuke quickly studied Uzumaki's face from up close. There were minor bags underneath his eyes, but nothing else that stood out.

"You feeling all right?" he asked nevertheless, remembering how Uzumaki had clung onto him the entire time they had waited for his mother to arrive.

"Eh yeah, just some bruises, but that's all," Uzumaki answered, a bit surprised. He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head. "Eh, look, about last Wednesday …" An uncomfortable look flitted very briefly across his face.

"Those three cowards are suspended," Sasuke informed him, hoping it would reassure the other boy. "They'll probably be expelled, considering the headmaster wasn't too happy with what they tried to do."

That was quite the understatement, considering the dark look which had lurked in A's eyes the whole time Sasuke had been in the office.

"Oh, eh, that's great to hear," Uzumaki said surprised; his eyes briefly widening. Next to him Inuzuka's head shot back and forth between them as if he was watching a tennis match. "Those bastards had it coming. You didn't get into trouble, did you?"

A flicker of amusement had Sasuke raising an eyebrow. "Why would I get into trouble?" He nodded at Uzumaki. "I'm glad you're feeling better. If you're feeling up to it, we can finish our assignment after school today."

"Yeah, sure, that works for me," Uzumaki agreed while Inuzuka for some reason thought it was necessary to utter strange choking noises.

"All right," Sasuke nodded again and turned around, continuing his way to his own desk.

Behind him, Uzumaki blurted out unexpectedly, "Thank you! I'm glad you were there to help me!"

Sasuke paused and looked back, taking in the earnest look in Uzumaki's eyes as he hovered over his desk, bracing his hands against the wood to keep himself balanced. Before he realised it, he felt the corners of his mouth tugging up; Uzumaki's returning grin seared in his mind as he sat down behind his own desk.

He had done something good. He had helped him. For the first time in years the knot, ever present since that night, in his chest loosened slightly.


AN2: Still adjusting to the rhythm of this particular universe again, so I hope it wasn't too awful!

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.