Rain

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


Rain
By 11


Chapter 02

“Hey again, I don’t think I ever got your name yesterday.”

Dark eyes raised slightly to focus a glacial glare on the male before her.

“I’m Kuichi Azazumi, remember?” He said flashing what might have been a charming smile if it weren’t for the fact that the dark-haired ‘female’ had no interest whatsoever. “Second year, student, ring a bell?”

Did the guy ever brush his teeth, or take a breath mint? “What?” came the snappish reply.

“Geez, don’t be like that,” he said still grinning in a seemingly friendly matter, “So what is your name?”

Like I’m about to tell a dolt like you. ‘Sasu’ thought keeping silent.

“Hey, Kuichi, take a hint she doesn’t like you,” said another guy as he entered the room and came over to the girl’s desk, “She likes me!”

Don’t flatter yourself, loser. She thought dark eyes focusing her death stare on the second intruder of what might have otherwise been a peaceful morning.

“Shut up, Jichiyama,” Kuichi sneered. “Why would she be interested in a retard like you. Come on she obviously doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“She didn’t look too pleased with you either, Azazumi.” The second jeered at the first.

“Please you two are no competition compared to me,” the third guy from the other day declared as he entered the room, a familiar face just behind him.

“Hey, Isuke, Kuichi, Gokyo, just leave her alone for a while okay.”

The boy’s glanced up at the pink-haired girl as she approached the desk where the three had centered, “She did just get here after all.”

“She doesn’t seem to want to talk to us anyway,” the second, Isuke, sighed in mock sadness in Sasu’s direction.

“But you’ll keep us amused, right, Sakura?” Kuichi asked stepping forward to pull her into his arms, but she stepped back with her hand forward to prevent him.

“Come on, isn’t it a little early to play games with people?” she laughed good-naturedly, acting like the three were merely joking.

“Sakura, don’t be like that!” Kuichi insisted stepping around behind her, wrapping his arms around her from the back catching her off guard. “Isuke, Gokyo, you can see about her, I’ll just go and have some fun with lovely little Sakura here, okay?”

Sakura started when Kuichi dropped his head to nuzzle against her neck, Sasu’s glare boring holes through the boy’s head, as poor Sakura stood in uneasy silence. No one heard the quiet approach of a certain person.

“You bothersome guys again…” a low bored voice drawled from behind Kuichi causing the hairs on the youth’s arms and neck to bristle as he moved around Sakura swiftly placing her between himself and the familiar voices newcomer.

“Naruto!” Sakura smiled turning to face the blonde.

“Oh… you again…” Kuichi said managing to look darkly on the blonde even as he slowly edged away towards where Isuke and Gokyo stood by Sasu’s desk.

“Bothering these girls again?” Naruto questioned watching the three boys with an odd, seemingly bored, sort of disdain.

“Not at all, that’s your job,” Isuke returned in a malicious snarl. The corners of the blonde’s mouth twitched upward slightly as he moved forward three steps fast enough that the boy’s were already running for their seats at the back of the room before he stepped before Sasu’s desk.

“You okay, Sakura?” the blonde asked back at the turquoise eyed girl.

“Yeah, thanks Naruto, those guys can be trouble sometimes,” she said thanking him, and smiling slightly at him.

He turned his head to look at Sasu, whose glare had receded from icy to cold. He sat down in the seat he had occupied the day before, but Sasu’s glare followed him. “What? You’re alright too, aren’t you?” Naruto asked.

“Yes.” Sasu answered crisply, though her eyes didn’t leave him.

“So why are you looking at me,” the blonde asked. Sasu didn’t answer but turned her eyes back to the front. Sakura took a seat on the desk in front of Sasu to better talk to Naruto and the dark-haired girl.

“So Sasu and I are actually both errand girls for Naru, I found out yesterday when we both reported in!” Sakura explained to the blonde suddenly.

“That so?” Naruto asked, seemingly uninterested.

“Yup, me Sasu and Ino, and Naru, she’s a little strange to me, but she is even more beautiful up close than in the magazine pictures!” Sakura gushed happily, “Isn’t that right Sasu?”

“Sure.” The dark-eyed girl replied, “So does Ino go here too? I haven’t seen her.”

“Ino? Oh, no, she goes across the way to the all girls school,” Sakura explained, “I knew Ino from a while ago though, we used to go to the same junior high school and grade schools until now. Actually Ino was who helped me get this job as errand girl when she did.”

The doors to the class opened as more students filtered in filling up the desks followed closely by the teacher just as the bell rang for class to start. Yesterday’s homework was handed back and readings were assigned before the teacher settled down to grade the homework leaving the class to either read to talk quietly amongst each other from their seats.

Dark eyes glanced side ways at the blonde boy seated less than a foot away. Actually ‘she’ had been rather relieved when Naruto showed up to chase those guys away. It seemed that since becoming a girl Sasuke was now the target for male affections rather then when he was a boy and was the object of female admirers. Maybe his mom was right; his face gathered people to him no matter what gender he was.

“Why are those guys so scared of you?” Sasuke asked Naruto, his voice low so as not to attract the teacher’s attention like with the other conversations about the room.

“Hm?” Naruto’s blue eyes glanced up from the book and met with Sasuke’s dark ones. “Why does it matter?”

“Just curious,” Sasuke replied, not breaking eye contact.

“You don’t need to know.” Naruto told her looking back at his book firmly cutting off their short conversation there.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed, but Naruto didn’t choose to look up again or acknowledge him for the rest of the classes until lunch where ‘Sasu’ left with Sakura to go meet Ino at a restaurant over lunch.

“So, why are the guys at school so afraid of Naruto?” Sasu finally asked over lunch, to Sakura, unable to not voice his query.

“That’s because of his record,” Ino piped up, surprising Sasuke that she would know something like that since Naruto currently went to a different school than Ino. “Actually a lot of people from lots of schools around here are scared of him. Others don’t believe he exists. You just moved here from Kikuren, so I guess you wouldn’t know.”

“Don’t tell him we told you, cause he’s really nice and we don’t want you to think badly of him, but the year before this one in junior high, Naruto almost killed a person.” Sakura explained. “No one knows who it was but it was circulating somehow and eventually the resident badboy, Kiyotaka, he picked a fight with Naruto. It was a stupid reason but he used it to justify attacking him.”

“Yeah, and Naruto broke his arm,” Ino continued, “Kiyotaka had to go to the hospital, and he even moved out of Tokyo he was that scarred.”

“Kiyotaka…” Sasuke repeated, Naruto had mentioned that the first day at school when he got those creeps off his back the first time.

“Yeah, so that’s why all the boys get so spooked by him.” Sakura finished.

“Is he stable?” Sasuke questioned as an after thought.

“Agh!” Ino groaned, “We told you at the start, Naruto’s really a great person. Of course he’s stable! Just a little rough sometimes and ultra strong.”

“Yeah, I mean just the fact he could do something like that if he wanted makes a lot of people not want to get on his bad side, you know.” Sakura agreed.

“Okay… I got it.” Sasuke nodded returning to his food. Sakura and Ino started talking a little after that about some meaningless topic that Sasuke wasn’t much listening to, until Sakura mentioned that they should head back to school before the bell rang for lunch over.

Sasuke didn’t think much less of Naruto, he didn’t think a lot of him to begin with but still. Every now and then he’d glance over at the blonde, why didn’t he want to tell him that stuff before? Maybe it was embarrassing to have on your record that you almost killed a person and broke another’s arm.

After a while Naruto noticed the stare and interjected with a ‘what?’ but Sasuke never replied and only looked away, what would he say? Sakura and Ino told him not to tell Naruto he found out from them. The rest of classes were pretty uneventful. But ‘Sasu’ was called to stay a little after by the teacher to help pick up the books and put them all away before she could head out.

Sighing a little after closing the door behind Sasuke walked out towards the stars, he had to be at Naru’s studio in an hour, if he was quick he might have time to go by his apartment and change out of the school skirt, it never made him very comfortable. While jeans may be more of a giveaway leaving his hips exposed so much made him feel too naked all day long. He would have demanded the staff let him as a girl where a boy’s school uniform, but that would probably have been too much of a give away.

Sasuke hadn’t even realized that while thinking somehow his foot missed the last step and sent him tumbled forward down the last three steps, and something sharp pierced the side of his thigh. Okay, now he definitely had a valid reason for exposed legs; safety hazard!

“Darn it…” he growled after having landed on the soft warm surface, soft and warm because in the last three steps he had been catapulted into a person on their way up the stairs of just standing at the bottom. “Uh… sorry…” he offered as he glanced down at his hip, ignoring the person for a moment to examine that a sharp pencil was currently embedded a fourth of an inch into his upper thigh. Now who had left a sharp pencil propped up, sharp side up, against a stair? Just waiting for a person to trip and get it stabbed into them?

Great, so now he was bleeding and he had landed on some poor unsuspecting person to boot. The universe was just against him today… oh well, the bleeding could go until he got to the nurses office… back up the stairs he just fell down, and clean up the wound. Gripping the end he yanked the wooden blade out of the soft milky skin, hissing a little, taking it out only seemed to increase the blood flow. Darn.

“You’re going to have to get that bandaged up now, you know that right?”

Sasuke’s breath caught a minute in recognition of the male voice. Yes he should have been very happy it wasn’t one of his admirers, but still… “Yeah I know that.” He said, speaking with a dry throat.

Naruto’s eyes fixed on the wound, “But you’re just letting it bleed.” He remarked glancing back up at the dark-haired ‘girl’s face. Sasuke’s face suddenly flushed with embarrassment. Why did his foot miss that step again?

“I was!” He huffed, almost forgetting to soften his voice so it came out rougher that he’d meant, darn, if he wasn’t careful he’d give this whole thing away with just his voice. Thankfully Naruto didn’t seem to have noticed the sudden shift in pitch.

“You’ll have to get off me first to do that,” Naruto mentioned. Sasuke glanced down again to take into account their position and how he had landed straddling over the blonde’s waist.

The burn in his cheeks increased as he stood up quickly and suddenly wished he hadn’t when his hip ached in protect, almost making him fall back down on the other boy again except that he managed to grab a hold of the nearby stairs railing to keep his footing.

Naruto put his feet up under him in a kind of crouch, but he didn’t stand. Instead he opened a small box he had been carrying with him and took out a bottle of clear liquid and using a strip of cotton sheeting just wet the part of the sheeting. Using the cotton sheet he wiped up the blood that had run down Sasuke’s thigh and holding the cloth against the wound opening briefly before taking it away.

Sasuke gasped at the cool cloth sheet against his thigh, glaring down at Naruto suddenly, the crimson burn in his face deepening. Just what did that idiot think he was doing!?

“What are you doing!” he hissed at the blonde voicing his inner outburst. Naruto didn’t first reply before he got out a roll of white bandage.

“I was just getting out of P.E., Hinata from class E needed the nurse’s kit so I had gone up to get it, I was about to go return it before I ran into you.” The blonde youth explained. “Hinata’s fine now by the way.”

“You might want to lean against something so I can get this on right,” he suggested as he readied to wrap up the bleeding spot. It wasn’t so deep, but he was probably right that it needed to be bandaged up for at least a few days until the skin could heal over and it wouldn’t start bleeding again. Just standing here for a while and already the red was starting to run down his leg again.

With another anesthetic cloth he cleaned away the small drops of blood before tightly laying the white clothe over the wound and winding it around the back of his hip. Then back to the front wrapping it over a few times and going a little up and down so that it had a wide spread area in case it stained. Already it was starting to tinge pink, but after the third wrap it didn’t seem to be able to come through much more.

Sasuke watched him all the while, fighting to keep his embarrassment level low, which was difficult considering the circumstances. However Naruto didn’t seem to think much of it as he cleaned and bandaged the wound both quickly and efficiently, his warm hands never contacting Sasuke’s thigh for more than a few seconds at a time. It was almost cold how unemotional he seemed about it.

“You might want to change the bandaging tomorrow at the office,” Naruto told him as he stood and taking the kit with him headed off to the nurse’s office. “Be more careful.”

Sasuke felt a growl in his throat but squelched it. Easy for you to say… Sasuke thought viciously glaring over his shoulder at the disappearing blonde, a tinge of envy to him as the boy disappeared. After all, that guy never had an eccentric mother who made him some to a new school and crossdress as an errand girl for some new model. Sasuke turned away and continued on his way to the studio. He was supposed to be climbing the social ladder right now, but he wasn’t. He was still just working for Naru.

Arriving outside the studio like yesterday, he was surprised when he saw Naru on her way out, was the shoot already over? No, he had been sure that the shoot had been at the specified time…

“Naru, the shoot’s not already over is it?” ‘Sasu’ asked in shock at seeing her employer, the blonde stared at the dark-haired ‘girl’ for a moment as if confused, before breaking into a grin.

“No way! I’m playing hooky today,” she laughed, but then glanced up at Sasu suddenly serious, almost worried. “But I can’t have you going upstairs and telling Neji that…” she muttered, and seeing Sasu’s disapproving gaze, grinned providing an explanation, “I left him a note anyway.”

She walked forward quickly locking her arm in Sasuke’s effectively dragging him with her, the blonde’s grip surprisingly strong for a girl. “But we have to get out of here before he finds it and sends people out looking for us!”

“Hey-! Wait a minu-!” Sasu sputtered as she was nearly yanked off balance by the girl, who just laughed as she continued to lead Sasu through a maze of people on the street and towards a more tourist part of Tokyo, surprisingly less city-ish than the rest of the city.

When they finally came to a stop and Naru released Sasu’s arm, she glanced up at the building they stood before, large blue art covering the front with depictions of a killer whale, a dolphin and many multi-colored fish swimming in complex and beautiful patterns.

“The aquarium…?” Sasu half asked, half stated glancing at Naru wondering about the girl’s sense of sanity, the blonde only giggled at Sasu’s incredulous expression. She dragged him inside the building and paid for both their admissions before heading inside where people filtered past the clear tanks full of vivid marine life.

“I just wanted to go here,” Naru said after a moment, pausing in front of a tank containing a multitude of sea fish and anemones. “It’s quiet you know, and pretty.”

Yeah, Sasuke had to agree with her, it was quiet, everyone was silent as they watched the many marine species swim around their tanks around them, the tanks taking the place of walls. There were a lot of varieties actually, different colored fish from different parts of the ocean, some unique only to that area and had to have the tank kept a particular temperature or they’d die.

Some other species were very large, but the whales were kept in another part of the aquarium all together. They had the largest tanks of all and actually the viewers got to walk through a long glass tunnel on all sides above and below to view the majestic beasts.

The calming dark blue and aqua lighting all around them made him also admit it was kind of pretty. Very calming over all, not that he’d tell her that. She was still annoying; and completely frivolous…

Glancing at the blonde beside him though, he had to acknowledge she wasn’t so bad right now, she wasn’t being loud or shouting insults at people. She turned to look at him smiling after a minute.

“Want to go eat something?” she asked, her voice low so that it meshed with the other quiet murmurs around the area, “they have a café at the east end.”

“Yeah, sure,” Sasu agreed following her past the tanks towards the east end, even the café was pretty quiet, like the rest of the aquarium. This would be the perfect environment to come in and enjoy a coffee while doing homework…

Naru watched him a while, and only grinned at him whenever he looked up at her to note that fact. Was this her way of flirting? Naru was that way? Or was she really just sensing somehow that Sasu, Sasuke, was actually male?

“Why do you keep staring at me?” he finally asked.

“I’m just watching you,” she told him with a smile, “you’re fun to watch.” Then as an afterthought, “It’s actually fun just being around you. Dunno why though.”

“Hey… excuse me…”

Sasu and Naru both looked up at the group of boys that had approached their two person table. “But are you… by any chance…” the one boy stuttered out, “Naru Kitsune?”

Sasu glanced back at Naru, so these guys knew her, apparently she really was very popular. The blonde hardly looked phased though. As if for a minute she didn’t even recognize her own name. “Yes?” she asked responding finally, the boy’s faces lit up.

“Miss Naru… Can I please have your autograph!” he asked happily handing her a piece of paper, “To Koisuke Yuchiro.”

“Me too, I’d also like an autograph, please Miss Kitsune! To Yori Mikichi.” Another boy said handing another piece of paper, a few girls on the side of the room had noticed the commotion before joining the group of boys.

“Miss Kitsune! I’m such a huge fan! You’re my inspiration! I’m trying to get into the modeling business too you see!”

“Miss Kitsune, can I have your autograph also!?” another girl asked, hopefully. Sasuke suppressed the urge to smirk, how wonderful that finally he wasn’t the one drawing everyone’s attention. Naru signed for the first two boys, but as more people started to swarm, Sasuke started to wonder if the two of them would be able to get out of here… well maybe he could, but what about Naru, would it technically be alright to leave her? But then Naru couldn’t’ pay much attention to him anyway, if he left she probably wouldn’t notice.

Suddenly Naru’s hand covered his, and she came to a stand Sasuke doing so with her, the crowd hadn’t lightened but apparently Naru had had enough of the crowd. Naru gave Sasu only a moment’s warning by squeezing her hand gently before taking off breaking through the crowd quickly and breaking through the other side and rushing through the aquarium pulling Sasuke along with her as she went.

Sasuke was able to keep up with her, but momentarily got sidetracked as the blue lighting fell away along with concrete floors and they were running through the whale’s tunnel. A large killer whale swimming overhead, the white underbelly edged in black catching Sasuke’s momentary attention with the sheer size of the thing.

Vaguely he could hear the group running behind them, Naru turned sharply once they were out of the tunnel and pulled them both into the girl’s bathroom dragging them both into a stall at the end. She didn’t lock the door but pulled Sasuke to stand up on the toilet seat with her. Seconds later two or three girls entered the bathroom one checking for legs under the stall doors before turning and leaving the bathroom with her friends to search elsewhere for the model. Once the door swung shut, Naru breathed a sigh in relief before she started laughing, her soft breath hitting against Sasuke’s neck as they held each other’s shoulders for support on the toilet seat.

The stall was a little small and when they got off the seat, it was a little awkward since to get out the other would almost get hit by the door before the other could follow out of the stall. Worse yet, Naru just kept laughing, apparently she found this situation very amusing, but Sasuke was hardly finding the situation very funny. He was this close to a girl, and his body was starting to seriously freak out. Geez, this never happened before, even when girls jumped him in the hallways back in junior high. Of course he had never found any of them attractive either.

I’m going to die of hyperventilation… Sasuke thought.

“I’ll go first,” Naru said calming down her laughing spasms enough to edge out of the stall so Sasuke could do the same after her.

Stepping outside the bathroom they found the area more or less clear, with a few family tourist groups wandering around the tanks admiring the colorful marine specimens. Naru suddenly bubbled up laugher again, though she tried to squelch it out immediately, “That was fun!” she declared seemingly unable to stop smiling.

“That was life threatening, what are you talking about?” Sasu asked both skeptical and annoyed; yeah, life threatening, in more ways than one too. Naru just laughed further at the comment, her laugh wasn’t so bad, not very feminine though, it kind of sounded almost boyish, but then she was sort of a tomboy in some ways wasn’t she? Some girls had worse voices, and her voice wasn’t bad, just boyish. He kind of liked it; he turned away and sighed pulling the still giggling girl behind him, his hand having gripped hers on the way by as they headed out. He couldn’t stay mad at her anyway.

“So where did you want to go now? Look around some more?” he asked, still trying to sound somewhat annoyed with her, but failing miserably in his opinion.

“I’m sorry,” she said releasing his hand, “I didn’t mean for that to happen with those people… I’ll take you home now.”

She stepped away and started walking, Sasuke following in step beside to her as they admired a few more tanks on the way out before exiting the aquarium and true to her words she walked Sasuke all the way to his apartment complex. Though he managed to convince her she didn’t need to walk him all the way to the door.

Entering the empty apartment Sasuke thought to himself over the previous couple of hours. He still had some homework to do but he could do that in a minute. Naru Kitsune… she wasn’t so bad, still kind of conceited, and somewhat infuriating but… not completely awful.

He could live with her existence in any case…

`

“I do not believe this!” the youth cried incredulously as he gripped the letter hard enough to tear his fingers through the paper.

“What is it Neji?” Ino asked as she and Sakura poked their heads into Naru’s dressing room to see their employers shoot director on the verge of spontaneously combusting. “Let me see.” She said taking the letter from the dark-haired young man before he tore it in two and reading it over with Sakura reading over her shoulder.

“Hm… so she’s playing hooky today.” Ino murmured quietly. Neji growled at the other side of the room stomping back and forth in an angry circle.

“So…” Ino said turning to her friend, “Wanna go out for coffee?”

“Okay!” Sakura agreed amiably. The two walked out of the room, apparently having been released for today due to the absence of their model employer.

“Augh!!” the Hyuuga boy groaned in frustration as he pounding his fist against the wall. Naru Kitsune was going to be his ultimate demise.

Sakura and Ino glanced back with apologetic smiles. Sakura sighed as the elevator arrived; “Poor Neji’s so frustrated with his model.”

Ino only nodded in agreement; heck she would be too if her model were Naru Kitsune.

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