Good Boy Meets Bad Boy

Good Boy Meets Bad Boy



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Chapter 19

Where Trouble Lies Ahead

[Naruto’s POV]

Sasuke’s been quiet all fucking day. It was irritating as hell, but I expected it. It’s not like we had some bubbly fucking conversation to go about, especially considering yesterday’s circumstances. I guess it was my fault to assume he’d bombard me with questions, like: Who the hell was that guy? Or: What the hell happened, or Has this happened before? Etc, etc…

But instead he’s just kept silent, his pencil every so often tapping rhythmically against his desk as he stares emptily down at his blank notepaper.

And I guess… at the same time it’s not like I was being the most talkative either – not like I was very talkative with the Uchiha to begin with, but it wasn’t just him, it was everyone else included. Gaara, Kiba, Neji – I hadn’t said a word to them all morning save for the occasional acknowledging nod of my head or shrug of my shoulder.

I guess what has also put Sasuke through a loop was the fact that I came to school the next day even though I’d clearly had my ass raped and a bullet in my leg.

I was sure he’d at least as questions about the gunshot wound, but I got nothing.

Well, and I slouch forward over my desk, resting my chin in my hands pensively, it didn’t bother me THAT much because in a way it was nice to not have someone nosing up in my business for once.

I suppose that maybe Sasuke took the hint when I told him to mind his fucking business because he sure in hell was right now. Hell, he didn’t even so much as look at me.

There were several times it occurred to me to say something to him throughout the period – hell, even yesterday when I regained consciousness.

Shikamaru had dropped all of us at my pad, Sasuke refusing to go home when Neji advised him to and just stuck to the gang like glue. When I woke up I was in my bed and everyone was there, Sasuke included. My leg had been bandaged and the cause of my center point of pain was sitting cold and rusting in a dish on my nightstand.

Gaara told me my body forced the bullet out of my leg about an hour after I passed out and that the wound had closed entirely, but was still bandaged anyway to keep from reopening. Neji had stepped in there to say something about how much I rough-housed all the time and would more than likely tear open the injury again if it weren’t properly dressed.

Of course I ever so typically just flipped him the bird and demanded drugs for the remaining pain in my lower half and that included other areas beside my leg.

But even after all that Sasuke still did not say so much a word to me for the rest of the night, and then this morning of course. It made me wonder if perhaps Gaara and them gave him some insight about me to help clear things a little, but… Even then it still didn’t make much a difference. Cleared up or not, I figured he’d still bother me with something.

…Maybe it irked me more than I was willing to admit.

Sasuke just kept giving me this pitying stare yesterday, watching me as though he were still replaying that vicious scene over and over to himself; like reliving some sort of nightmare.

But now he wouldn’t even so much as look at me. His irises were dull, thinned out and the skin around his eyes was puffy and dark like he hadn’t slept in weeks. And if it were possible, his fair skin looked paler than usual.

Well, I couldn’t really blame him if he were sick or getting sick. Not after experiencing something like that. I had to take into consideration I wasn’t exactly as pure and innocent as Sasuke was. I’d been through hellova lot more than he’s probably even knowledgeable about. So I probably wouldn’t be very sane if I had to watch someone else suffer through that.

Still.

I figured if maybe I opened my mouth first, the Uchiha would open up.

“Hey.”

Sasuke doesn’t even so much as blink. I knew that even through Kakashi’s surprising lecture he heard me; it’s not like I was being quiet when I called out to him. But the Uchiha doesn’t move or make any hint to hearing me and THAT irritated the shit out of me. I glance warily up at the front of the classroom to make sure Kakashi wasn’t looking my way and I lean over my desk a bit and say, “Sasuke.”

Still no response from the Uchiha and I felt my eye twitch in anger. I stand abruptly out of my chair, knocking my seat over and I slam my palm down hard onto Sasuke’s desk and yell, “I know you fucking heard me, damnit!”

Still without even a flinch he doesn’t move for a moment, but finally sweeps his eyes up to me slowly and meets my gaze for the first time this morning.

Of course Kakashi had to go and fucking ruin it.

“Naruto, do you have a problem?”

I twitch visibly and look at him and scowl, mumbling, “No.” And the white-haired teacher turns his masked face to Sasuke.

“Sasuke, do you have a problem?”

I expected him to at least shake his head no, but he doesn’t even fucking do that. His eyes just drop to the surface of his desk as if the world around him no longer existed.

Beyond frustration at this point I clench my hand tight and seriously consider punching the shit out of him, but before I can raise my fist Kakashi boldly intervenes.

“Naruto, Sasuke. Take your problem out in the hall please,” and he points to the classroom in indication for us to leave.

I sure as in hell didn’t expect that either, but I guess I wasn’t going to argue because now I could get the Uchiha to spill.

I’m the first to leave, slamming the door open with a loud bang and Sasuke silently follows and rather politely shuts it behind us. I wait a moment to see if Kakashi would follow us out, but when I hear him continue his lesson inside, I turn to Sasuke briskly who was casually leaning against the wall beside the door with his eyes still downcast and I strike the wall beside him hard, barricading him on one side.

“All right, what the fuck is your problem?!” But he doesn’t speak or look me in the eye, so I angrily continue. “If anyone should be all ‘silent and depressed’ it should be me, you fucking dick! I know it was…” and for some reason my words trailed off right there and I suppose it was because Sasuke suddenly stepped closer to me so our chests were nearly touching. I couldn’t see his face anymore because it was hanging over my shoulder, his hair tickling my cheek.

He murmurs, “I couldn’t sleep… All I could see – was your screaming face… over and over.”

I grimaced hard at his words, tensing visibly and I wonder briefly in the back of my head if he was gunna get all weird on me again. I guess I had a feeling he was going to end up saying something like that, acting like he was haunted by what happened.

Sasuke inhales a shaky breath, “You probably won’t care or believe me, but… I really am sorry… for what happened. You may try to act tough and say that you’ve done bad things, but…” he pauses for a while as if unsure of what to say next and finally he murmurs, “…no one deserves that.”

I honestly think I would have preferred Sasuke to scream at me for getting him roped up in such craziness. Say something like how it was my fault and why he should’ve had to suffered through watching that, yadda yadda…

But not that.

That was just way too weird for me.

I take a step away from him, putting distance between us again and I raise my hands tiredly, “Look, just… stop okay? Stop fucking apologizing to me like you could’a done something about it, all right?” And I look up at him and stare him dead in the eye, “Whether or not you were there yesterday wouldn’t have changed my outcome.”

The next on look on Sasuke’s face was completely opposite of his inexpressive, but sullen features. Now he looked horrified at my statement.

I shrug mentally to myself. I meant every word; it was true and there was no denying it. Whether or not Sasuke had followed me, or Gaara and them showing up, Orochimaru would have done those things to me anyway… The only thing that might’ve ended up different was I wouldn’t have had a bullet lodged in my shin, but that was about it.

Sasuke’s eyes drop over me again and he gets real quiet, whispering to me, “Does it hurt?”

I stare at him as if we were completely retarded and ask, “My leg? Yea, a little,” and Sasuke shakes his head at me slowly.

“Not your leg,” and he gives me this uneasy nodding gesture to my body and it suddenly clicks was he was insinuating.

Oh… right. Duh.

I feel my cheeks heat up a little and I look away for a minute, shoving my hands in my pants pocket, “Yea.”

There’s a rather comfortable silence that drifts between us and we just kinda stand there tacitly for a moment, enjoying the company of each other.

I remove one hand to scratch nervously at the back of my head, still not looking at the quiet Uchiha and ask, “You… wanna go back to class?”

“Not really,” he rather quickly responds and it catches me a little off guard. I open my mouth to retort something back wittily, but instead my mind shuts off and lets that silence fill the space between us again.

I guess he assumed Kakashi wasn’t expecting us to return to class anyway, but it was weird that Sasuke suddenly wanted to ditch class when he was usually so anal about it with the “not wanting to ruin my future” and all.

This time Sasuke was the one to break the silence. “How can you be so casual?”

I turn slightly to look at him queerly, blinking a few times as I try to interpret his form of questioning.

“You act like… nothing even happened yesterday. How can someone – after having something like that done to them – just pretend it never happened? Like the situation never even existed?” Sasuke’s brow is puckered forward as if he were really baffled, looking rather distressed and concerned of the situation.

I scratch my head again as I so often did when I couldn’t think of anything else better to say and do, and just as I open my mouth to speak does Sasuke intervene again.

“I know that it bothers you,” and he turns to me quickly, pinning me down with this firm stare. “That look on your face yesterday – those tears! – I know they were real – those were real emotions, Naruto! You weren’t just being casual or pretending what he was doing to you didn’t exist! So why now?!” He was yelling now, absolutely infuriated with me and I had no fucking clue why. I knew Sasuke was weird, but he’s seriously lost it this time.

I wasn’t sure of what to say. I don’t think I could say anything to him without blowing up and throwing a thousand swears in there. So in all I couldn’t say anything sensible.

“No one deserves that!!”

“Shu-shut up, Sasuke,” I say rather shakily. I didn’t want the whole fucking school to know and if this idiot kept screaming everyone was bound to know.

Sasuke tenses visibly staring down at me like he was going to pummel my face in any second and finally he bursts out again, “No! I’m not gunna let you wander around anymore like that – pretending that that this shit is okay in your life!”

I snap and grab two fistfuls worth of Sasuke’s blazer and slam him into the wall he was previously propped against and fasten him there, starting to raise his feet off the floor. He doesn’t struggle at first and just burns into me with a powerful glare and my tapered blue eyes began to flicker.

“I said shut the fuck up!” And I crunch him furiously against the wall. “It’s my fucking life and I’ll do and say what I want to, ya hear?! Stay the fuck out of it, Uchiha! This ain’t got nothin’ to do with you!”

Sasuke shoves me off of him forcefully and takes me by surprise when he deftly throws his left fist into my cheek hard; really hard. I skid across the hallway floor a few feet till I nearly hit the opposite wall from Sasuke and struggle to sit up properly. Landing on my ass, totally wasn’t cool – Sasuke, you dick!

I raise my hand to my mouth, touching it gingerly with the back of my knuckles where I was sure blood was starting to form and Sasuke steps away from the wall and hovers over me like a predator. What the fuck kind of game was he playing?

“You fucking mind telling me what I should do then?! You really want me to just step back and watch this shit happen to you over and over again?!” Sasuke takes another harsh step towards me and my eyes pan up to him briskly. “Like HELL I’m gonna do that!”

The Uchiha drops to his knees before me, scooting over until he was practically on TOP of me, grabs my open blazer in his fist and rams me into the opposite wall hard. He’s centimeters… from my face. He’s got me mentally pinned with this fierce, dark stare and I find myself tongue-tied for a minute. The only people that had the fucking guts to do that to me at school were Neji, Kiba and Gaara.

“Ever since I fucking met you I can’t get you out of my head for a second!” Sasuke hisses at me lowly, jerking me back a little harder against the wall for emphasis. “You mind telling me what the fuck is up with that?!”

I just tip my head downward a bit to put distance between us, but my eyes don’t leave his for a second, just flickers away from turning red.

“So long as we’re doing this project you are my fucking business!” And he releases me with another little shove. He sits up straight, still fixing me under a stare and tells me sternly, “You need to stop pushing everyone away. There’s people who actually do fucking care about you, you know.”

“Tch,” and I smirk sarcastically, spitting nastily out at him, “Oh yea? You wanna tell me who the fuck they are?”

Sasuke gives me this look suggesting I may be the biggest idiot in the world, grunts and replies with, “Neji for one does, and so does Kiba, and Gaara – a lot.” I just give him this scowl to go along with my hideous glaring. “And I do.”

I think it was his last words that made me snap again because I growl irritably and lunge forward, tackling him to the floor wildly.

Sasuke hits the floor hard, craning his head forward to keep from smacking it against the tile as I lift him up slightly by his blazer, curling back one fist in pure rage and let it come smashing down towards his face.

Sasuke’s eyes are wide, blinking once, then twice at me as the tile crumbles in a miniature crater beneath my fist that had landed centimeters from his head. I can feel the skin of my knuckles split, cracking from the intense contact and warmth begins to pool out from under my fist.

“Why the fuck do you care so goddamn much?! After everything that’s happened?! You should fucking hate me!” My body’s shaking, eyes wildly ablaze a fiery crimson color and boring holes of anger and confusion right through Sasuke, not once letting up on my iron hold on his blazer.

He just silently stares up at me as if waiting for me to continue my angry rambling.

“HATE me! Like everyone else does!” I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment, words gushing out of my mouth, “I fucking kidnapped you and tried to rob you! Then I got you kidnapped again and forced to see things that you’ll never fucking forget! Hell – those things could have happened to you if it weren’t for me!”

There’s an awful silence around us save for my heavy breathing and Sasuke’s mouth slowly opens for words to come out, “It’s my choice.”

I stare at him wide-eyed.

“It’s my choice to stay with you – to hang around with you and everyone else.”

What the fuck was UP with him?! He was making me so fucking angry and yet I was scared all at the same time! I was so confused that it made me angry! I’m shaking, losing my grip on his blazer and my fist slowly lets up, bringing up pieces of tile that crumble back down to the floor the more my hand rises.

“Just like everyone else makes the choice to stick with you or avoid you.”

I can’t… listen to him anymore.

I stand briskly, wrenching myself from him and I take off running down the hall – like a little baby, I know, but… if I sit here and listen to him… I don’t know what’ll I do!


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[Sasuke’s POV]

…what… the hell was that all about?!

I just kinda lie there stunned, hazily watching the hallway’s ceiling above me and my eyes drop to a half-lidded state of musing.

Naruto gives everything away when he blows up like that. I can tell with him suddenly taking off like that that he was truly bothered by yesterday’s situation. It was so obvious and I’m glad I got to the bottom of it…

I finally release a shaky breath that I had sucked in when Naruto’s hand cratered the floor next to my head. I thought he was seriously going to punch me, hence why I was so tensed up. Sitting up from the floor slowly I run a hand through my hair carefully, shaking out small pieces of debris from the cracked tiling. Drawing my legs up I push off with the back of my hand to a sluggish stand, looking down the empty hall in the direction that Naruto took off in.

Glancing warily over my shoulder when I hear the classroom door rattle open, I’m met with Hatake-sensei’s, for once, serious face. He drops his visible eye to me and places a hand reassuringly on my shoulder.

“Go, I won’t mark you for this – and I’ll hold on to your bags.”

I guess I had to give Hatake-sensei credit for this. He wasn’t as dumb or oblivious as he played himself off to be. He heard our argument – actually most of the class probably did as well – and knew the current circumstances and now… oddly enough was giving me permission to skip the rest of the period to chase after him.

But this was Konoha High after all. There’s no way in hell I would’ve gotten away with that through one of the teachers back at my old school…

“Aa,” is my only response with a slight tilting of my head before I book it down the hallway. I was going to have to thank sensei for this later.

I knew exactly where Naruto went and that was the school roof. Don’t ask me how I know; I just had a hunch… like everything else lately. It seemed to be a regular hangout for the gang so I could more than likely expect them to be there at any given point in time. Of course the only person that would more than likely be up there now other than Naruto would be Neji, considering that both Kiba and Gaara were in our first period and still in class.

I about fell on my face running up the stairs, ignoring the “no entry” sign still swinging on the door where it had been opened and slammed shut again and I bust through it, letting it bang against the outer wall.

The runaway blonde turns abruptly at the sound of the door and he turns to me looking flabbergasted, like he couldn’t believe that I had followed him up here.

He turns to fully face me and draws his eyebrows down in a deep, unforgiving glare with teeth and fists clenched. He screams, “Go the fuck away, Sasuke!” His eyes were still blazing red – the color of blood – as firmly stands his ground.

“Why did you run away?” I coldly ask, not giving him any leads to how I was truly feeling inside. Of course I was more or less confused and scared in all reality, trying to make sense of what was running through both mine and Naruto’s head.

Naruto visibly tenses before me, balling his fists straight down with his shoulders hunched, “Cos you’re fucking annoying me! Following me all over the goddamn place and – ” he stammers, stopping short of his words for a minute and then continues to splutter, “and weirding me out!! You keep saying all these crazy things to me – god, you make my fucking head hurt! Just go the hell away and leave me ALONE!”

I wondered briefly then if maybe I should leave Naruto. But I suppose I was afraid to, thinking maybe he might run off again and I couldn’t let that happen. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me… but I couldn’t just leave him. Naruto was hiding something deep inside of himself and that was what caused him to run out and get into so much trouble.

Stepping forward, I firmly stand ground and yell back, “No! I’m not going to leave,” and I stride forward with such speed that I didn’t realize I had until I was practically on top of the blonde, pinning him back against the chain-link fence. The fence rattles when Naruto’s back bumps it and his fiery red eyes don’t leave mine for a second. There’s an eerie silence that looms over save for the winter wind that blows between us.

Naruto’s eyes are tapered in anger, but his lips are taut in confusion; every muscle in his body are tense as he waits for what I’m about to do or say.

“You want to shut everyone out,” I growl darkly, “you want no one to bother you – no one to help, but that’s just a cover up!” I’m inches from him, staring down into his face dominantly, “I’m not stupid, Naruto! You try to fucking bottle up and all you do is make yourself more and more vulnerable! You don’t realize it, but I can see right through you!

I may not know anything about your life or what happened to you or why you do the things you do… but for the days I’ve known you I know that you’ve been hurt a lot; that you’ve suffered…” I drop my eyes away from him to recollect my words.

“My life’s… never been perfect either, but I know for a fact that I haven’t experienced the things you have. But regardless of who’s had the worst… you shouldn’t have to feel like you’re the only one suffering.”

We drift into silence, neither of us saying a word to each other, but our gazes have broken although we weren’t moving.

There’s mumbling under my head then and I start a bit, looking down at the blonde before me who’s not looking back, “Why… didn’t you talk to me at all yesterday and this morning…?”

I blink a few times, confused at the meaning of his question.

“I expected you… to bombard me with questions or something… you know, freak out and scream at me.” Naruto’s got this distant look in his eyes despite their intimidating color. “But you didn’t. You didn’t even look at me.”

My lips purse. Naruto actually sounded like he was… concerned – no, upset? That I wasn’t talking to him? As weird as it was and despite the warmth that spread through my chest I decided to shed a little light then.

“I… didn’t know what to say.”

Naruto blinks and looks up at me.

“I thought if I tried to apologize, or ask questions all you would do is tell me to butt out and mind my own business. So I was… too afraid to say anything to you,” and I uneasily run a hand through my hair, then let it drop an inch to rub the back of my neck. “I figured you had enough to deal with, so I didn’t want to bother you.” I meet a pair of calm, red eyes that were warming to look at it and ask, “Would ya… feel better if I asked questions then?”

I was only joking of course, but Naruto harrumphs and looks away from me sharply, sizzling again with his arms folded over his torso, looking teased and he gives this faint nod.

Puzzled I try not to outright laugh out of confusion because he was actually okay with me prying now?

“Tonight,” and Naruto looks at me queerly, “I’ll ask you some questions then. We’re still getting together at my place tonight.” Naruto’s face, if I’m right, looked like it lit up a bit. “I got the okay from my folks – so don’t try anything funny, got it?”

“Yea, whatever,” Naruto non-chalantly, albeit bitterly scoffs, kicking his foot out at nothing and shoves his probably numb hands in his pockets.

After a few silent minutes of me gazing out along school grounds from the roof time I turn from Naruto, “We should probably head back, first period will be ending soon.”

The blonde hesitates and finally murmurs, “Yea,” in reply and kicks off the fence.

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I finished this a LOT sooner than I thought I would, but I guess it was because as soon as I sat down and started typing I just COULD NOT STOP XD; the story is swallowing me whole – oh noes DX
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed… the SasuNaruness is beginning to unfold and there will be even mooooore in the next chapter ;D at Sasuke’s house!! Perhaps a little jealousy between Kiba and Naruto? Or how about Neji?

Please R & R!!