Good Boy Meets Bad Boy

Good Boy Meets Bad Boy



--
Chapter 11

Of Ramen and Homework

[Sasuke’s POV]


Wow. It was like, he didn’t even need to breathe. Naruto just kept slurping and slurping and just didn’t breathe! Within an instant, Naruto slams the bowl, thankfully without breaking it and promptly orders another helping for the fourth time today.

My face falls for a second, thinking he was sure taking clear advantage of my lunch treat.

I was still on my FIRST bowl!

Slurping then noodles into my mouth, I chew, swallow, and then say, “Naruto, are you okay?” The blonde doesn’t look at me. “I mean…” I stop to make sure I word my question properly and end up shallowly asking, “…when was the last time you ate?”

Naruto sets the bowl down loudly and looks at me through hungry blue eyes and gives me this look suggesting severe stupidity on my part and once more shouts, “Ou-chan, gimme another!” Splitting open another pair of chopsticks, he proudly states, “I always eat this much ramen!” and begins digging in. “Besides, what do you care how much ramen I have? You’re rich aren’t you?”

“That’s beside the point, you know,” I say drearily, now coming to a full realization I WAS being used.

“Don’t sweat it,” the blonde slurps madly, “it’s my last bowl, okay?”

I sigh thankfully and finish the last remaining broth sifting in my bowl. Placing it down gently I ask for the bill and quirk a brow at Naruto, “What time is it?”

“Check your cell phone,” was Naruto’s garbled response.

“Don’t have it with me,” I state rather blandly.

“You sherious?” he asks me irritably with a mouth full of noodles. I nod and he gives me this exasperated sigh, digging around in his pocket and withdraws the mentioned. I veer back quickly as he suddenly thrusts the blue-lit phone in my face.

It was almost three in the afternoon.

It was hard to believe that all that time had passed already. “So what do you want to do now? It’s almost time for school to be over… so you wanna head back that way?” I suggest, kinda hoping that he’d go for the idea.

Naruto finishes the last of his ramen and sets it down and rubs his nose pensively, “Yea, I s’pose we can go back to school now and go pick up Kiba’s sorry ass.”

“What about Gaara?” I feel the need to ask. Naruto gives me this look suggesting I was completely stupid and I counter with a half-assed glare. I knew the question was stupid, but it still deserved an answer.

“I will shoot myself dead if Gaara agrees to come,” was Naruto’s response as he fishes out his keys and then dangles them in front of me. We head out to his car after I pay the bill and make our way to school.

We didn’t talk.

Naruto just reclined his seat ever so slightly and cranked the volume, blaring the single that was still in the CD player. We just leisurely enjoyed the silent car ride, despite the music that was blasting in our ears and out the open windows.

It was actually… kinda cool. In a way.

I guess I never really thought about it before, you know, skipping school. I was always just so afraid that if I ever got caught my dad would ring my neck. Then as I got older I just merely lost interest in it. I had Sundays to do whatever I wanted.

So I managed to surprise myself by stooping to my inner bad boy.

Okay, scratch that. That just sounds corny.

Suddenly, Naruto’s turning the ignition off, soothing the rumbling and shutting the music off. Looking forward from my daze I noticed we were back in the school’s parking lot. I blink once. That was… fast.

Most likely because I was spacing out the entire time. Naruto’s actually not that crazy of a driver.

“’Kay, we’re here,” Naruto announces the obvious and just kicks back further in his car seat.

“What’s wrong?” I ask when Naruto doesn’t make any effort of leaving the car. “Aren’t we getting out?”

Naruto lazily rolls his head to the side so blue eyes can look up at me. I veer back slightly. His eyes are so unbelievably deep; you couldn’t see the bottom of them. I feel my heart beat a bit faster. “Do I gotta?” is his slightly whiny response to my question and he gives me this sort of pout.

I almost cave into the look, but before I can let my weakness get the better of me I sternly clear my throat, open the car door and step out. “Yes, we ARE doing this project whether you like it or not,” and I shut the door promptly.

Naruto, still scowling just crosses his arms rather childishly and sticks his tongue out. Ooh, such defiance. I roll my eyes and gesture for him to get out with a wave of my hand. Naruto finally after a few more moments and a few more frantic waves he gets out, albeit reluctantly.

I smirk at my victory and usher him towards the school’s entrance, watching as the other students come flooding out the doors and meeting into their little clusters to go home.

I recognized a few people here and there from my other classes, but no one I’d go rushing up to. “You said we’d meet as the main entrance, right?”

“Yea,” the blonde replies, stepping up to the school’s wide mouthed entrance and promptly props himself against the first available wall.

Quite honestly I was hoping that Gaara would make a decision when he arrived. I didn’t want to wait around listening to everyone fight over the stupid school project. I really didn’t want to do it myself, but I wasn’t skipping out and getting a zero on it. One step at a time, okay?

I just wanted to go to Naruto’s house and get it over with for the night.

And just as I hoped, here come Kiba and Gaara now. Kiba must’ve found the mentioned after class and dragged him here.

His pale eyes meet mine and almost spark with life. I feel my body instinctively heat and tense up under his gaze. “Uchiha,” he says quietly, sounding almost – almost – surprised to see me. Then he looks rather questionably to Naruto, who just shrugs at him.

“All right,” Naruto says, shoving his hands in his pockets and pushing himself off the wall, “here’s the deal. The Uchiha and I agreed to do this stupid, gayass project and we’re going to my house tonight to work on it. Kiba’s already agreed to go, so Gaara, it’s up’ta you. I don’t give two damns whether you come or not.”

Wow. I would’ve worded it better personally, but Naruto got straight to the point.

Gaara’s silent and it wasn’t in a very good way. I was getting very unnerved with the way his eyes seemed to keep passing between Naruto and I. Then to make the feeling worse, Kiba had to come and be all clingy-like on me.

“Whatever,” is Gaara’s quiet response and gives Naruto a really weak, or just that well hidden smirk, “you know Neji’s really pissed with you.”

Naruto harrumphs loudly and runs his hand through his hair, “I don’t give a damn why Neji’s pissed with me. Now let’s go.” And he turns, taking Gaara’s “whatever” response as a yes.

Wow. I’m going to be stuck in a car with the same people, Neji excluded, that assaulted me from yesterday. Yay, oh fucking yay.

Well, the situation was either going to get better or I was going to die. So I really only had two things to look forward to in my future since coming to Konoha.

But…

I look over at a laughing blonde, knuckling it up with Kiba playfully. He actually looks happy.

I smile.

…Naruto’s definitely not as bad as he seems.

It was only about a five-minute drive to Naruto’s place. I was skeptical as to why he even drove to school when he could just as easily walk there.

But what was more disbelieving was the area he lived in. It wasn’t nice… at all.

We’re talking bars on every window and door of every building. It was definitely an older part of town, but still unappealing to say the least. I knew Naruto was “thuggin’” it out, but, still. It was hard to register that he actually lived here. I mean, he said his uncle was a writer, right? So couldn’t he afford a better place?

“Yo, Sasuke,” and I look at the blonde calling my name. Naruto gives me this half scowl, half scrutinizing stare, “are you gunna gape all fucking day or are we gunna do this thing?”

“Right, sorry,” I mutter, embarrassed to be staring at the large, cracked apartment building that Naruto must reside in. The lobby was bigger than I anticipated, and there was an old, shrubby lady hunched at the desk behind the dusty old glass. Weird office.

“C’mon, it’s up here,” Naruto says to me while thumbing the button to the elevator. At least I assumed he was talking to me, figuring that Kiba and Gaara have been here before.

“Whoo!” Kiba yells excitedly and pumps his fist into the air as the elevator door opens, “I’m ordering pizza!” As we all clamber inside the tiny room, Kiba throws his arm around Gaara and nudges him, “What kinda do’ya want, Gaa-chan?”

Gaa-chan?

Okay…

Addressed redhead, with his arms characteristically crossed over his chest doesn’t even push the brunette away, just mutters, “Pepperoni.”

“Peppa it is!” Kiba exults, jumping over at Naruto next, practically tackling said blonde to the dirty, used-to-be-white tiled floor. “What’cha want, Naru?”

“Holy Jesus, Kiba!” Naruto cries out in surprise, catching himself hard against the wall. “Kill me for Christ’s sake!” and gets a giggly “sorry” from Kiba. “Um,” the blonde thinks, recovering his balance, “pepperoni sounds good to me.”

Kiba grins and pats him hard on the back, “Nice,” and then wildly turns to me.

Shit.

“Sasu-chaaaaan~!” And I end up hitting the floor hard.

“Fuck!” I hiss, my ass seriously sore now. Kiba gets in real close to my face briskly, our foreheads touching, “And what do you want, Sa-su-ke-kun?”

I close my eyes, lowering my head slightly so I couldn’t see him, “I…like cheese pizza.” And it takes a lot of effort to fight the blush off my face.

Naruto grabs Kiba’s collar and jerks him back hard, “Get off of him, you horny mutt!”

“Mean!” Kiba whines pathetically, clinging to Gaara’s arm and frantically pointing an unsteady finger at Naruto, “You have no room to talk, whisker face!”

“Shutup, Kiba!” Naruto retaliates rather loudly, Gaara sliding his arm out of Kiba’s grasp coolly. Kiba jumps at Naruto’s face and the two engage themselves in a battle of swatting hands.

I sigh.

Gaara smirks faintly and I can tell he’s used to their antics. I’m… getting there, but they all still catch me off guard. The sound of the elevator dinging was music to my ears as we arrived at the third floor. But it was short lived because both Kiba and Naruto shoot past us, racing each other down the hall to see who could get to Naruto’s door faster, leaving Gaara and I behind in the dust. I sweat a little and the redhead just silently shakes his head.

“Let’s go,” Gaara initiates conversation, nearly scaring me out of my skin. Whoa, he actually talked to me! And not in a way that was threatening or demeaning.

“Yea,” I just quietly answer him and he takes lead down the old corridor. Following suit of him, I decide to keep the conversation going, to see how long Gaara would actually willingly talk to me. “I take it you’ve been here before, huh?”

“Many times,” was Gaara’s short response.

I nod, “I see.” I pause, wondering what to ask next and then I catch sight of Naruto rapidly waving to us with a just as hyped up Kiba at the end of the hall. “So, um, how long have you known Naruto and Kiba?”

Gaara’s silent to my question for a moment and I look to him patiently. He’s got this rather pensive look on his face and there’s that rare, small smile on his face, “I’ve known Kiba since the beginning of the school year.”

“You guys are fucking slow! C’mon, I’m hungry,” Naruto yells, pouting at us with crossed arms and of course the look is accompanied with puppy eyes, courtesy of Kiba, who wraps his arms affectionately around Naruto’s waist. My face burns hot and I feel my fists clench instinctively. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I got… angry with Kiba for some odd reason.

Gaara thankfully distracts me, “But Naruto, I’ve known since the end of elementary… at least I think it was that long ago.”

Elementary? “Wow, that was a long time ago,” I muse softly. I was quite honestly shocked that Gaara was actually carrying a smooth conversation with me that didn’t involve killing me. “That,” I begin rather quietly, no, weakly, “must be nice.” Gaara gives me a questioning look through his usually expressionless mask, but doesn’t dote on it.

I wish I had friends like that. You know, ones you grow up with?

Naruto kicks open his door when Gaara and I manage to reach within five feet of them and we all file in. Naruto kicks off his shoes and tosses his keys onto the small table at the entryway and motions all inside. We follow suit of him, removing our shoes in the parlor as well. I had to say I was really quite surprised with the inside of this place.

“Sasuke?” Naruto wakes me from my daze and I look into curious, sapphire eyes, “What the hell are you starin’ at?”

“A studio apartment?” I ask skeptically, noting to how everything except a bathroom, closet and one separate guest quarters was in one giant room.

“Um, yea?” The blonde’s giving me this weird look as if I was some sort of foreigner.

I shrug, “Never been in one.” I honestly hadn’t. I’ve seen them in pictures and magazines, but I’ve never actually been inside of one. I guess it was just too weird for me to have everything in ONE room with the exception of a bath and shower room, a closet, and a spare bedroom.

But then again, this apartment was originated for Naruto’s uncle, not him. He’s just living here because his uncle isn’t. Kiba is flying over to the kitchen area and quickly snatches up the cordless phone, knocking a few things over in the process and rapidly begins dialing whatever the nearest pizza place must be.

“Hey! Watch it, dog-breath!”

Kiba mutters a hasty “my bad” several times under his breath, bouncing excitably up and down as he waits for someone to pick up on the other line. I take a comfy seat on the pullout couch next to Gaara, who props his arm along the top behind me. I shift uneasily at that gesture, but I disregard it.

Kiba promptly orders three large pizzas, two pepperoni and one cheese, which I thought to be a bit much between the three of us, but decided not to argue since I wasn’t paying for it.

As we wait for the pizza to arrive, I decide to get things started, “Okay, so Hatake-sensei told us that for this project we had to write about each other’s history.” I say and begin withdrawing my necessary tools for writing: a spiral bound notebook and a mechanical pencil. “It’s obvious it’s just a stalling project, but he’s using it in order for us to all get to know each other better.”

Naruto snorts quite loudly, “That’s stupid. Go figure Kakashi would set up something like that.” I sweat a little, but our teacher DID seem like the type of person to do that.

“So let’s get started then,” I softly announce, peeling back open my notebook. “Who wants to go first?” I ask, eyes panning to each individual slowly, waiting patiently for a volunteer. And when no one made a jump, I opted to go first. “Okay, then, I’ll go,” I grumble rather irritably.

They better not think they can get away with not doing this.

I open my mouth to speak, but find myself instinctively closing it and sweating a bit.

Shit.

This is stupid. They already know a bunch of stuff about me! They pretty much got the basics of me figured out. I inwardly groan and face palm.

“Okay, well since you guys already know the basics about me… Um, my father runs the Uchiha Corp., as you know. My mother is a stay-at-home-mom,” and I got interesting looks at that. “I have two brothers, one older, one younger. My younger brother’s name is Konohamaru and he’s adopted. My older brother is Itachi, and he’s an asshole.”

Kiba laughs aloud at that one, clutching his stomach and gently rolls off the couch. Naruto smirks at me, “That’s not very nice, Sasuke.”

I pout a bit and cross my arms indignantly, scowling off to the side, “Well he is.” Kiba recovers and clambers back on the couch opposite of Gaara and I and cuddles up next to Naruto. I feel my fists clench around my book.

“Kiba, you go next,” I grit out slightly and he perks up.

“Huh? Me?” and childishly points a finger in indication of himself, then gives me a cute battering of his eyes. I clear my throat some and grit out a very strained “yes.”

I wondered then if Kiba was just acting cute, or if he really was that scatter brained sometimes.

“Uh,” the brunette crosses his legs underneath him, clasping both ankles and rocks a bit on his behind, “I live with my mother and older sister, who are both the top veterinarians in Konoha, so we got a lot of dogs.” He whips his gaze and head in my sudden direction and squeaks, “Sasu-chan! You gotta come to my house and see my dogs!”

“M-maybe later, okay?”

Satisfied Kiba grinned and then roughly smacks Naruto’s arm, earning him a yelp from the blonde and he yells, “Tag! You’re turn, Naruto.”

It was… weird. These guys.

They were like, totally different people from when I first met them. Naruto, when he was “Kyuubi” had a totally different personality and had this sort of domineering presence over everyone. Kiba was still a wild-child, but more child-ish, if you will. Gaara was still Gaara too, but more open, more warm. And, well, I couldn’t speak too much for Neji. He was still a snooty, girly-looking prick too.

Naruto scratches his blonde head a moment as if carefully choosing his words in his head.

“Uh, well… I have no siblings, well, I sorta do, used to.” Despite knowing the whole story from Ino, I was kinda hoping Naruto would elaborate his side. “You guys know,” Naruto suddenly huffs and crosses his arms. I’m sure everyone did know. Naruto didn’t look like he wanted to talk too much about it right now, so it was best not to force him. “Your turn, Gaara,” Naruto tags himself out.

Addressed redhead doesn’t speak for a few minutes, leaving us in a rather uncanny silence. And when he finally DID decide to speak up, it startled all of us. “My father is the governor of Suna,” and he looks at me and explains, “that’s Konoha’s neighboring town.” I nod and jot down any given information I’ve collected so far so I could begin writing my paper. “My mother is dead,” and I drop my pencil. Gaara continues anyway without hesitation, “and I currently live with my two siblings that transferred here with me that also go to school with us. My older sister, Temari, and my older brother, Kankurou.” And he ends it there.

Ouch. Well, that was certainly interesting. Frankly, I was surprised that Gaara even told me that kind of information. I honestly expected him to clam up and say something along the likes of “it’s none of you fucking business” and treat the situation like he did earlier about going to his house for the project instead of Naruto’s.

Maybe he’s lightening up around me?

We take a break from our class project when we hear a knocking on the door, signifying fresh, hot pizza was waiting for us on the other side.

And while we ate, we actually had an okay time, stuffing our faces and exchanging embarrassing, funny stories with each other.

I chance a look at the digital clock on the far side of the room and catch it to be after eight. Wow. That was so fast! I didn’t think I’d be here this late.

“Well, it’s getting late, so we’ll work some more on this another night.”

Kiba shoots a hand into the air, “I vote for going to Sasu-chan’s house next!” And I prickle.

“Sounds good,” Gaara says coolly and gets an agreeing nod from the blonde that was now sitting with him.

“Do’ya need me to drive you guys home?” Naruto asks, indicating Kiba and I.

I’m about to respond, but Kiba answers for me, “Nope, that’s okay! Sasuke and I’ll take the bus home.”

I sigh softly, “Yea, I guess I’m taking the bus.” It wasn’t really that big of a deal, but I felt a little safer being driven him rather than taking a bus. But it was too late to back out of it now. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” and I wave, Kiba dragging me by my other arm out the door hastily and loudly giving his good-byes.

The door shuts behind us and Kiba’s grinning from ear to ear as we walk down the hall to the elevator on the opposite end.

“So, Sasu-chan, you wanna come to my house for a minute and see my new puppy?” he cheerily asks and thumbs the button on the wall.

“Maybe another time,” I push out quickly as the elevator doors greet us with an open entrance. Clambering in a sudden thought shoots through the side of my head and I push the doors back open.

“What’s wrong, Sasuke?” Kiba asks, stepping out of the elevator with me.

“I just realized I forgot my bag, I’ll be right back, okay?”

“You sure?”

“Yea, I’ll just be a second, okay?” I call back down to him, already hurriedly making my way back to Naruto’s door. I knock twice and enter, mutter a soft pardon and let the door fully swing open at the sight I honestly wasn’t quite expecting to see.

Naruto’s shirtless and laying sprawled across his bed in the center of the room against the far wall with Gaara hovering over him. Their hair is tousled, faces pink with the heat between them and Naruto had his wrists captured by his head in Gaara’s grasp.

The blonde, surprised, sits up quickly, pushing Gaara back habitually, “Sasuke! It’s not what you—”

I hastily snap, “I’m sorry,” and shut the door quickly, deciding that retrieving my school things was no longer important.

Storming down the hall and past Kiba I slam my palm against the elevator button and the brunette slides up next to me, “You okay? What about your bag?”

“I don’t need it,” I angrily growl, stepping into the elevator as soon as the doors open. “Let’s just go home.”

Kiba glances warily over his shoulder down at Naruto’s door and frowned slightly before stepping in with me, “Okay.”

I couldn’t explain the overwhelming feeling of anger and hurt like I had just been betrayed or something. It didn’t make any sense to me whatsoever, but right now I didn’t care. I would sort out my feelings later. Right now I just wanted to get home and forget about what I just saw.


--
yeeeey!
Sorry it took so long to update ^^; I’m probably not going to be getting around to constantly updating like I used to, so my sincerest apologies ahead of time. Meanwhile I’ve FINALLY started doing commissions :3 so that’s going to take up a LOT of my time, not to mention I’m still trying to find a job TDT *sobsobsob*
Plz let me know what you all think~ ^////^
R & R!