Class of 2007

Sasuke wants to slump back in his seat but he has the will not to. Student after student has graduated. There are five who need to walk across the stage still. Naruto is a powerful speaker. It figures, considering that when he taught at KHS he was a speech teacher for the freshman and some of the sophomores. For the other sophomores, the ones who took advanced classes, he was an English teacher. He was Sasuke’s English teacher. Sasuke had a relationship with his English teacher. He smirks and thinks to himself, always the English teacher. That or no one’s willing to admit otherwise. I loved my English teacher in an unhealthy way.

I still do.



“Uchiha Sasuke!” Sasuke stands up, posture stiff and perfect. He marches across the stage. His heart slams in his chest, trying to seemingly become free of his ribcage. When Naruto was giving the speech, Sasuke felt as though he had risen out of his body and he didn’t focus on what Naruto had said. He’d been trying to grasp the concept that Naruto had kept his promise…returned.



He knew Naruto was watching his every step across the stage. He goes through the shaking-of-hands and the cameras flashing. Gaara moves to allow Sasuke to stand next to him. Everyone clutches their blank-paper scrolls in their hands. The real diplomas will be sent via snail mail. Cheers erupt—everyone’s graduated and their families are happy. The seniors are glad to be done with school, to get a taste of the real world now. Each student whisks off her or his cap and tosses it into the air. Lee, being Lee, tries to use his head to re-catch his cap. Gaara shoves him and he squawks until Gaara plunks the black square back onto Lee’s head. Lee smiles and hugs Gaara, whose eyes widen but he hugs Lee back. Sasuke ignores Lee’s blathering about how they will now explore their final years of youth before entering the summertime of adulthood. He walks instead over to Kakashi and Iruka.



“Hey, Dad?” He addresses them both by this name because he knows one or both will answer. “Yes?” Kakashi has his arm around Iruka’s shoulder. Both men are proud parents indeed, and it shows on their faces. “There’s…someone I need to talk to before we go.”

“Take your time, Sasuke,” Iruka tells his son. Sasuke nods, and after handing Iruka the cap, gown, and blank paper, weaves his way through the crowd.



He had trouble deciding what to wear tonight. When Naruto was still teaching, Sasuke told him he’d dress like a tramp and dance across the stage to get the diploma. Naruto had smiled. They both knew Sasuke had been joking. Sasuke had spent awhile deliberating what to wear. A sweatshirt and jeans, the same he wore when Naruto taught? No. Dress like a tramp? Um no. He knew Naruto would be looking at him, and he wanted to—hn. His hand had brushed the dress shirt hanging in the closet, the one he hated. The slacks he hated were on the same hanger. Iruka had bought the outfit for Sasuke’s eighth-grade graduation. Sasuke wears it to weddings, funerals, and now, his graduation. It is a good formal outfit, but it also fits as a graduation outfit. He’d gotten the idea from a book.



Students are surrounding Naruto in a gaggle. Sasuke thinks of them as a group of geese because they are squawking and honking—not literally, but figuratively. Naruto smiles and talks to each of them, just as he had two years ago. “Uzumaki!” the boys shout. “We missed you, man!” Naruto doesn’t mind being addressed by his last name. The girls squeal at him how good it is that he’s back and address him by his proper title. Naruto makes eye contact with Sasuke multiple times as he addresses the students, just as he did two years ago. Every emotion shoots through Sasuke’s body and he finally lets the memories flow through his mind.



Sasuke carefully pulled the classroom door shut behind him. “Hey.” He turned and saw his English teacher. “Hi.” The teacher didn’t look a day over sixteen! “Weren’t you the one who did that thing at the Konoha library this summer?” Blond spiky hair, bright gray eyes that, when widened, would later prove to be bright, bright blue. “No.” Sasuke headed for a seat in the front row, where he wanted to sit. “The creative writing thing,” the man insisted. “No. I do a lot of creative writing, but not that.” He placed his backpack on the side of his chair and removed his binder from his backpack. The teacher and the student were silent until the other students streamed into the room. Then, Sasuke learned that the young teacher’s name was Uzumaki Naruto.



That had been Naruto’s first flirting attempt. The first day of class. He’d had a crush on Sasuke ever since first looking at him! Sasuke had returned the crush less than a month later. He had created excuses to be closer to Naruto—help on poetry, help on homework, and finally, to get to know him.



“Where’s your accent from? Jersey?” Naruto had smiled. “Philly.”

“So why’d you move here?”

“It’s more open-minded and I’ve always wanted to teach in Asia.” Konoha High School’s teachers taught in English most of the time.



“I hope it snows soon!” Sakura squealed. It was before the winter holidays. Naruto heard her and smiled. “Hey guys, do you want to do a snow dance?” Everyone agreed eagerly. “Okay, everyone be really quiet,” Naruto had smiled and Sasuke was again reminded of a sixteen-year-old. “Put your hands on the desks. Now drum softly on the desks.” Soft drumming noises filled the air. “Now spread your fingers.” The noises changed slightly. “Turn your hands over…” Sasuke’s knuckles ached suddenly. “Now end.” They did. “Oh, that was so cool!” Ino smiled. “Will it work?” That night, there was a blizzard.



“How did you know I am Wiccan?” Sasuke demanded. Naruto shrugged. “I had a lot of friends back in Pennsylvania who were.” Of course. Sasuke knew now where Naruto had lived—in one of the densest Wiccan/Pagan cities ever. “Are you Pagan?”

“No, I’m an atheist. So what is your guys’ creation legend?” Definitely from Philly.

It’s inappropriate to talk about religion in schools, and to ask a teacher their religion.



They talked about books and poetry a lot. Sasuke would walk with Naruto to the school parking lot, then walk home. Once, Iruka picked him up from school. Sasuke talked about Naruto. “Sasuke…are you having some type of weird relationship with your teacher?” Iruka had stopped at a stoplight and was searching his son’s facial reflection in the review mirror. “N-no…” Sasuke stammered. He sure as hell wanted to. They did, but not until later.



Students often crowded Naruto’s classroom after school. He was the yearbook director. Students who participated in making the yearbooks often stopped to talk to him about it. He was an English teacher who taught two levels and a speech teacher. Students wanted his help with their homework for class. Sasuke would, on occasions that there were other students in the room, wait patiently to talk to Naruto alone. He would do homework for other classes as he waited. Naruto always smiled at Sasuke before speaking. They would talk about their personal lives often. Naruto had grown up in America. He was very excited to be teaching in Japan, and had been doing so for two years. He, like Sasuke, had done some acting in high school. Sasuke had given up acting quickly because his grades had slipped.



It was not only the after-school talks that were informal. The e-mails they exchanged also quickly became informal. Sasuke had simply typed, ‘I am remembering an ex-boyfriend. I may need to step outside of class on occasion,’ and Naruto had responded with an incredibly long, compassionate e-mail. It’s inappropriate to do that. Sasuke raised his hand. Naruto walked over to his desk. “Why can’t I call you Naruto?” Sasuke hissed. “We’re familiar with each other!” The class went dead silent but Sasuke failed to notice. “There has to be an element of respect,” Naruto was paler than usual, and Sasuke read the subtext. We can’t let anyone know.



They had talked about a sexual scene in a book. Sasuke had pointed out that sex was a vulnerable situation. Naruto had agreed, and then they had both attended to other tasks. Sasuke remembers how Naruto had looked at him during that conversation: I want you but I can’t have you and I bet you’re having sex with someone else.

The school had been taking their exams and Sasuke had been assigned to take his exams in Naruto’s classroom. During the break, Naruto had wandered over to Sasuke’s seating area and they had begun to converse. The twenty other students in the room were holding several different conversations, so no one heard them. Somehow, the conversation turned to smoking. Sasuke lied to sound cool and said he smoked. Naruto grinned, believing him. “You know, when you say things like that I’m going to have to tell the administrators.” Sasuke ignored that. “Do you smoke?” he asked his teacher. “Yeah, socially.” Naruto had never told anyone that Sasuke smoked. Legally he was supposed to. He hadn’t.



Sasuke was often paired with Gaara for class activities. It could be said that the two were friends. Together, they worked efficiently and often finished assignments before their deadlines. They laughed at the same jokes, were annoyed by similar things and agreed that Naruto was their favorite teacher. Sasuke knew Gaara liked Lee and Gaara knew Sasuke liked Naruto. They kept quiet about such things but Sasuke knew Lee was smitten with Gaara. Sasuke supposed it was fairly obvious that Naruto returned Sasuke’s obsession. “Hey Uchiha, go tell Sensei we’re not done with the assignment,” Gaara hissed. Sasuke raised an eyebrow but walked to Naruto’s desk anyway. He and Gaara had completed the assignment the day before in their history class, in which they were often made partners. “Ano…Sensei?” Naruto looked up, smiling. “Hai, Sasuke.”

“Gaara and I haven’t finished the character analysis.”

“Oh, that’s all right,” Naruto responded cheerfully. “How far do you need the deadline pushed back?” Sasuke faltered. “A day?”

“That’s fine, sure.”

“Sensei,” Sakura walked up to Naruto’s desk. “Ino and I haven’t finished the character—”

“Then I have no choice but to fail you on the project,” Naruto interrupted, frowning. Sakura fled back to her desk. Slightly shaken, Sasuke walked back to a smirking Gaara. The redhead calmly whispered, “If that isn’t evidence enough, tomorrow, tell him you don’t like formal wear.”



So Sasuke did. Naruto began to wear jeans and simple sweaters instead of the suits. His businesslike shoes were replaced with Converse sneakers. His hair was hidden underneath a black beanie. Sasuke’s mouth watered. Naruto looked like a student. And hot. Gaara was quite amused and Sasuke didn’t know how to feel about it. When he was at home he couldn’t help but analyze everything to death, knowing the answer all along. He listened to Evanescence every day four hours, the Fallen album’s songs “My Last Breath” and “Taking Over Me” playing on his stereo most. Sasuke knew how much information Naruto had at his disposal about Sasuke—his phone number, e-mail address, parent’s full names, work and home phone numbers and e-mail addresses, his home address, his discipline record, transcripts from previous years, mental health papers, physical health papers…so much. Sasuke wondered what Naruto did with all the information. He decided, one night after listening to Amy Lee’s voice over again, to find out information about Naruto. After three weeks, he had found out the meaning and ethnicity of Naruto’s surname and Naruto’s current home address and telephone number. He didn’t know what to do with the information but it made him feel better to have it.

He knew Naruto had taken Sai out to dinner one night very early in the school year. In the first week. Sai had blurted it out in class and Sasuke had felt hot pangs of envy course through his blood. Later he realized that Naruto did indeed have a thing for girly-looking sixteen-year-old boys with black hair. Sai and Naruto had only gone for dinner, not had sex. Sasuke was consoled by this.



Iruka’s sister was getting married, and the wedding was shortly after Sasuke’s classes ended. He would have to wear the ugly eighth-grade graduation outfit to school. Inwardly he groaned. He was more moody than usual as he stalked into his last class of the day, Naruto’s class. Sasuke had plunked himself down next to Gaara and stared moodily at nothing. Class was rather boring. Sasuke stood to leave as the bell rang. “Hey Sasuke, nice outfit,” Naruto smiled. “I’m looking forward to dressing like I normally do again on Monday,” Sasuke grumbled, inwardly pleased at how Naruto was checking him out, then outright staring at his ass. Sasuke all of the sudden didn’t think the outfit was so ugly anymore.



Naruto began initiating conversations to get Sasuke to stay after class. “Sasuke, do you realize how well you’re doing in here?” Sasuke paused, his hand on the door handle. “You’ve got an A,” Naruto informed him. Sasuke walked over to Naruto’s desk.

“So? I’m sure a bunch of people in here do, too.”

“No, most of them have all F’s,” Naruto frowned. “Oh. They should try harder. You’re a good teacher.” Talk about a LAME come-on! Naruto smiled. “Thanks, Sasuke.”



The next day, Sasuke attempted another (LAME!) come-on before class started. “Is it hot in here or is it just me?” Naruto became flustered at that and tried not to show it. “I guess I could, uh, should figure out how to turn down the heat in here…I’ll talk to the administrator.”



Sasuke decided not to stay after class that day, or the next, to see what effect it had on Naruto. “Sasuke, see me after class,” Naruto demanded five minutes into the class. “Okay,” Sasuke chirped. Naruto cringed and Sasuke smirked. After class, Sasuke approached Naruto’s desk. “Sasuke, you’re a great student and I value you—uh, your input to the class. You’ve got to stop this, though.” Sasuke was baffled. Naruto took a deep breath. They were alone in the room. “Students in my other classes are beginning to ask questions about us. The faculty is whispering about us. My job is on the line, Sasuke, because everyone thinks we’re—” Sasuke interrupted him. “So let’s give them something to talk about, Sensei. We’ve been flirting with each other for four months now.” Sasuke leaned forward and kissed Naruto. Naruto kissed Sasuke passionately in response.