Good Boy Meets Bad Boy

Good Boy Meets Boy

Author’s Note: KOMG chapter 20! Wow, I can’t believe I’ve kept this story going for so long DX;; I’m so glad everyone’s enjoying this ficlet so much, so thanks for all your wonderful reviews and support!
Anyway, this chapter is going to mostly be Sakura’s POV and it will be written in a story-telling fashion -- like she’s telling the reader the story -- and then it will switch back towards the end or so, so we can witness the jealousy goodness to unfold at Sasuke’s house~ enjoy!


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Chapter 20

Heart Configuration

[Sakura’s POV]

Naruto and Sasuke… were acting very strange. Despite my desperate want of Sasuke to steer clear of Naruto, it didn’t seem like that was going to happen. Naruto and Sasuke both had a very interesting relationship that’s bonded very quickly over Sasuke’s first week here.

Knowing from experience, Naruto doesn’t work well with others; even his own gang members, or friends if you will, he has a hard time cooperating with them every now and then, and he’s known them for years on end.

But Sasuke was different than the others.

He was soft spoken and has a perfect background, although he comes off as off-Standish and cold, but it was only because he kept to himself. Sasuke wasn’t the type of person to run around trying to make as many friends as possible. He preferred to just be a loner with perhaps a few people here and there to talk to to help pass the time by, but no one he’d get buddy-buddy with.

Kiba was rowdy and loud, very out-going and was quick to mold well with others -- or at least prey of his choosing. He’s short-tempered and ready to jump all over your ass if you say or do the wrong thing. He has a sick sense of humor and nine times out of ten thinks with his dick rather than his brain. But for the most part he was easy to get along with so long as you could deal with his [at most times] childish-like personality, though in all he tries to mostly act like some sort of badass. I guess that’s being a “gang-member’s influence.”

Though Neji comes from a well-to-do family like Sasuke their personalities clash because they’re so much alike. They both like to keep to themselves, but Neji is a boaster and tends to gloat whenever given the chance. Of course the only reason for that, according to what Naruto told me, it was just because of the way Neji’s family is --something about it being split into two different categories… So to feel better about himself he becomes very arrogant and tends to make a LOT of enemies.

Now Gaara too comes from a wealthy family of sorts, but you wouldn’t know that unless you were close to him -- especially close like Naruto was. Naruto and Gaara stuck to each other like glue for the longest time. I believe as far back as their first meeting at the asylum.

Oh right… You don’t know about that yet. Well, you’ll find out sooner or later anyway, so let me give you a head start:


Naruto was ALWAYS getting in trouble whether it was with the law or with the family -- school. Whatever it was, it was never good despite whether it was minor or horrific. Of course it was mostly with the law he got in trouble with thought with much luck on his part he was able to steer clear of the police forces or slip by with a warning or escort home.

He was getting into fights on the streets or at school, getting caught stealing of vandalizing city property… everything. He had no respect for anyone, not even himself at most times. He got to a point in his life where he didn’t care who got hurt, even if it was him, so long as he got or did what he wanted.

As he got older and the trouble progressed he began committing real crimes -- felonies: dealing, grand theft, possession, carrying concealed weapons, etc. Pretty much anything and everything you can think of.

Naruto’s father -- my step-father -- never did a damn thing disciplinary wise to his son during the time he was still living. At that time my other and Naruto’s father had been recently married and all the man’s time was spent on my mother, his new wife. There was no time for Naruto anymore, no love; nothing.

Naruto’s anger derived from the recent divorce of his father and real mother because she fought only for his sister, Ino. There was no custody battle for Naruto. And since his father remarried and decided he no longer had time to spend with his son, Naruto had been long forgotten about. My mother wanted nothing to do with him because of his violent, trouble-making record.

In the beginning of the marriage she tried to reach out to the rambunctious blonde, but he only pushed her away out of anger for being separated from his mother and sister.

Now I on the other hand was the only one to withstand Naruto’s irritability and brash rudeness. He was outright defiant and cruel; bitter to those he saw a threat or nuisance and didn’t give much effort to consider other possibilities of that person. He just labeled them as he pleased and stuck to it.

But with a lot of pushing and self-restrain I was able to break away little by little at Naruto’s harsh outer shell. The only downside to getting Naruto to open up so much was he became possessive of my presence. As I got older and entered junior high I was lucky to have one or two friends because my step-brother, Naruto, didn’t allow it.

He wanted no one to suck up my time -- he only wanted it to be available for himself; wanting me all to himself. He lost his real sister and could only have me as her replacement, which ended up becoming an obsession for him.

And as Naruto’s possessive jealous behavior got worse I had a harder time standing my ground in fear of him. Naruto became capable of doing horrible things, which is how he ended up where he had been to meet Gaara.

It was late on a Saturday afternoon -- I remember because I was walking home from school when Naruto, as usual, had skipped out -- an eruption of gunshots and blood-curdling screams empties out through an abandoned parking lot two blocks from school grounds. Since it was on my home from school and because I had a knack for being nosy I immediately ran off in that direction to investigate and instantly regretted it upon arrival.

For the first time in my life I had witnessed the blood red color of my step-brother’s eyes. Never before in my life had I seen his eyes that color; never before had I seen so much spilt blood.

It was everywhere and in unbelievable amounts. Naruto was standing amongst piles of bodies of at least seven or more bodies with this expressionless look on his blood-stained face. The scars on his face were bleeding, dribbling down his face and disappearing under his chin like tears.

My satchel hit the ground and I don’t remember what I did after that.

The only thing I could remember was the crazed look in Naruto’s eyes that made them blaze crimson.

I remember my step-father and mother driving us downtown without a word. Naruto was eerily silent, gazing emotionlessly out the window by his head. I wasn’t told of where we were going or why or for how long, but I vaguely remember my mom telling me to get dressed that morning so we could leave early.

There were two cop cars that followed us for the entire trip; one in front of us and one behind us.

Naruto’s eyes sweep downwards across the soft interior of the car we silently occupied before sad, empty blue eyes meet mine and right before my eyes did his gaze flashed red again. The blonde suddenly decides to make his move of escape.

Despite the quickly moving vehicle Naruto slams the side of his body against his door and it busts open, unlocking and letting him roll loose across the busy streets. The parents are yelling and I screamed Naruto’s name as loudly as possible, cars dodging his slowing body on the road. After a few recuperating seconds he’s up in a flash and runs off as fast as his legs could carry him, the police vehicles immediately peeling out and giving chase.

It was then I assumed that they were sending Naruto to juvie, recalling his father mentioning something about appearing for court and what not. And if that were the case it was no wonder he suddenly made a break for it. OF course what didn’t make a lick of sense was that if he was being sent to juvie why the hell were my mother and step-father driving him there themselves? Isn’t that a police-escort-job?

Our car screeches to a sudden halt and I was sure I was going to have whiplash when my body jolts forward brashly. Car doors fling open and slam shut in the blink of an eye as my parents flee the car, surrounded by red and blue flashing lights against the gray sunlight.

I was told to stay in the car, so despite my worry, concern and overall curiosity I waited in the car as instructed, but I peer out the window to see what I could observe from my spot.

There’s screaming and yelling albeit it was muffled through the windows, but my eyes catch a blur of yellow and white. I saw several men detaining Naruto’s struggling form, holding down his body firmly as they withdraw a white jacket. Naruto’s red eyes whip around, mouth screaming a slew of swears as he fought against four men. It amazed me that it took that many people to hold the blonde down while they fastened a straight jacket on him.

My heart sank down into my stomach when I saw them restrain him that way; treating him like a stereotypical madman. My fists pounded the windows as Naruto’s restrained body is hauled into a police vehicle; my screams unheard.


The car had stopped downtown in front of a blinding white building with a matching stark interior. At first I thought it was juvie because of the noticeable bars across every window, across every door leading inside, but it was too bright. And that’s when I noticed a flailing body to my left struggle like a wild animal against his buckled confines. He was wearing a straight jacket too, like Naruto and I realize now that we weren’t at a correctional facility.

We were at an asylum.

I was too scared to go inside, but my step-father insisted if I wanted to say “good-bye” to Naruto, reassuring me that he would be back shortly and that he just needed to stay here for a while.

If it were possible it was more blinding inside. Fighting against the light I squint carefully at Naruto who was still tightly confined within his white jacket with blazing red eyes, boring holes through me as if damning me for his situation.

“Naruto,” I whispered to him amongst the screams and loud bellowing of the long corridors ahead, “mom and dad said that you only have to stay for a little while, just until court is over.” I place my hands around his cheeks, dusting hair out of his face affectionately to make sure he was paying attention before lastly whispering, “I’ll come and see you every chance I get, okay?”

“Don’t… leave me alone,” Naruto very softly begs. Though you can’t see it in his face, his voice easily gives away his real feelings: he’s scared.

“I don’t want to… but they won’t let me stay here,” I stated through a whisper. As much as I hated it here I believed it might truly be beneficial, hoping maybe he’d be able to get the help he needed.

I feel my mother’s hands touch my shoulders and then squeezed them, wordlessly telling me it was time to leave Naruto behind. I lunge forward out of my mother’s soft touch and wrap my arms firmly around Naruto’s neck and shoulders, hugging him tight. I bury my face into his neck and hair, trying hard not to cry and I feel his head lean against mine, silently telling me he was sorry. I’m pull away when my mother taps my side again and I bump heads with him, foreheads touching gently.

Finally Naruto’s father steps between us and says something quietly to him -- something I didn’t hear and couldn’t recall to this day, but it changed the look on Naruto’s face from fear to pure hatred.

And we left Naruto there.

Naruto spent days, weeks, months there and I was sure to keep my word, visiting him whenever I had the chance. There were days I even took the bus when my mother or step-father refused to drive me.

He wasn’t the same. He changed more and more with every visitation. That place was making him worse -- if he wasn’t insane before he was surely losing every bit of sanity he still had. His body was thinning out which told me he wasn’t eating and his skin had paled from its usual sun-kissed color.

Naruto had started misbehaving in the facility and had to be removed from one of the wings and placed in his own separate chamber. He was originally living in a wing where he shared a section with a few others where there was a common room for activities, a bathroom, and individual rooms for sleeping. But now he was separated from all social contact due to disorderly conduct, as the staff put it.

And finally the day had come of Naruto and Gaara’s first encounter.

There was a high-pitched screech followed by what sounded like animalistic roaring and one of the corridor’s doors flew open, cratering the drywall before it and several nurses fled from the chamber, wildly screaming in shaking fear.

An alarm sounded, blaring down the hallway noisily as a flood of doctors began buzzing in over their contacts for back-up. As they all disappeared one by one into the now door-less room more growling erupts and a few are flung out the open doorway and hit the wall and floor opposing them hard.

“WE NEED BACK UP IN HERE, STAT!”

There’s muffled growling as a frantically flailing body is thrown to the floor and roughly pinned there.

“Hold him still,” and a random doctor withdraws a pocketed syringe full of a powerful sedative. Striding over to the fiery victim he prepares a spot on his inner elbow and begins to insert the needle and is thrown backwards with unbelievable strength, busting the seams of the far, padded wall behind him.

A shock of blood-red hair is revealed from under the pile of guards and doctors. Still writhing beneath them he gains a boost of power and stands, flinging them all off like leaves. Freed, arms broken out of the straight jacket’s steel buckles he flees the room, sliding a bit on sweating feet and makes a mad dash down the corridor, laughing maniacally at his grand escape. I suppose that’s Gaara for you… Making a break for the nearest door that led to the outside, the red head collides violently with the white steel-framed door and stumbles into the broad, but gray-colored daylight.

Despite making it to the outside he only escaped into a courtyard fenced by a twelve-foot brick wall. He stops, frozen in his wake as he stares wide-eyed into a blazing gaze of blood.

Mint-colored irises shrink in surprise upon meeting slit, red eyes on a tanned face and topped with a mess of shocking blonde hair. Gaara could sense this boy’s power just by his burning gaze boring deep holes into him and he suddenly felt drained.

The blonde pans him carefully, albeit briefly up and down and immediately makes sense of the situation, “You escaped,” Naruto quietly says to the other, slightly taller male.

The redhead is silent. He looks to be about Naruto’s age roughly though an inch taller -- barely. He seems as though he’s never slept a day in his life; pale green eyes surrounded by dark black circles of sleep deprivation.

“If they find you with me, you’ll be locked up for sure.” Naruto’s face is void of expression much like the redhead’s.

Sure enough does the courtyard door bust open once more, slamming fiercely into the brick wall outside of it with a loud bang and doctors flood onto both boys.

Naruto gives an angry growl as he’s pushed up against the scratchy wall on his stomach vehemently; face pressed none too gently into the rough bricks.

Gaara too is bombarded, thrown to the floor violently and pinned viciously, growling and wrestling with every bit of strength he bore. As he fights less and less his eyes look up and study the blonde who wriggled around just as much as he did under arms and wondered why he was being restrained too.

“I didn’t fucking DO anything!” Naruto angrily shouts and is harshly slammed back into the wall when he fights them again. Both boys finally stop resisting and allow the strangers to escort them back to their chambers, or at least Naruto returned to the same, usual room. As for Gaara, well he had to be temporarily detained in a new room while the other was under damage control.


A few days later Gaara’s room door opens, letting a blinding light pour in. He winces and shrinks back in the corner of his barren room and angry, mint-green eyes meet with three familiar faces of his doctor’s.

“It’s time to take your medicine, Gaara.”

Gaara lowly snaps, “I want to go outside.”

There’s a hesitating silence that follows and finally one of the men answer, “You know we can’t let you go outside.” And he’s violently hurled against the padded wall suddenly, throat beginning to cave in on itself and stranger yet Gaara hasn’t moved from his spot in the corner.

“I. Want. OUT,” the redhead malignantly demands, the upper half of his face encased in shadow.

“F-fine!” Another doctor uneasily splutters, frantically waving his arms about, “We’ll allow you twenty minutes of recreational time out in the courtyards -- just after you take your medication!”

The body is dropped from the wall and is gasping loudly for air, fighting against his suddenly very heavy body weight.

Once Gaara agreed to take his medication he’s escorted by the three doctor’s to the courtyard from yesterday. Half way down the corridor several guardsmen and doctor’s dash by noisily, yelling, “Code Blue!” With the sudden distraction at hand Gaara makes a run for it, following the crowd out the courtyard doors, ignoring the panicked shouting of his doctor’s behind him.

Busting through the doors that were about to close on him he was blindingly greeted by a blazing red sky. Suddenly, despite his backwards, arm-bound restraints Gaara finds himself unable to move; trapped in a wall of red. He shakily turns his head, pivoting to the right slightly as he stares upwards under the sun into a pair of demonic crimson eyes; pupils slit much like a snake’s and freezing the redhead there in his spot, gaze trapped.

Gaara’s pinned stare recognized the blazing red eyes to be that of the blonde’s he met days ago out in the same courtyard. The atmosphere around them weighed that of the entire asylum itself, Gaara’s knees dropping to the grass heavily and sunk into the dirt beneath him. The steel buckles of his straight jacket explode under the immense power and his arms are freed.

The blonde’s gaze was impending -- entrapping -- hypnotic almost as Gaara no longer felt in control of himself. Suddenly without realizing it a flashback hit’s the walls behind the redhead’s green eyes, making them widen in surprise as the images of just a few days ago pan by.

“You escaped,” the blonde tells him in his mind and looks away for a moment, studying the quiet scenic surroundings. He then looks back down at Gaara, eyes on fire practically and murmurs darkly, “If they find you with me, you’ll be locked up for sure.”

“You--” Gaara begins and is silenced by a deep rumbling in the ground, shaking him down to his hands now. Naruto’s face is mostly shadowed as he stands against the sun, but his glowing red eyes and the blood dripping from his face like teardrops are brightly visible even in his downcast.

There are three bodies rolling around on the ground during its quavering state. Each unfamiliar individual are gravely injured, their blood evident, staining Naruto’s clothes and skin. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to configure the events that had happened. Every person present was attacked by the blonde standing before him.

The doors burst open again loudly, chipping the brick wall behind said entrance and several people come storming outside where the two boys were. The unconscious individuals are immediately receiving medical attention while Naruto and Gaara freeze at gunpoint.

Gaara uncomfortably twitches at the command, “Don’t move,” but abides by the gunman’s words and remains still.

Naruto however moves and is nearly shot to death when his body collapses in a state of unconsciousness. All gunfire ceases as soon as the boy’s body rebounds off the ground and lays still afterward, paramedics rushing to his side as well.

The redhead is still, waiting orders to rise and to be taken away by his set of doctor’s that have finally made it to the scene in their chase.

“If they find you with me, you’ll be locked up for sure,” do these words eerily repeat over and over in his head as Gaara is pulled up and off the earth by the undersides of his arms.

And sure enough, Gaara was locked up again with no daylight for two weeks.

At the end of the two weeks Gaara was released from Konoha’s Psychological Rehabilitation Center [a nicer name for Konoha’s Crazy Farm] and within days he was readmitted for further destructive behavior and attempted suicide.

A much taller man who addressed himself as Baki escorted Gaara back to the nuthouse and made sure their guardsman [approximately five of them] kept firm grips on the retained redhead. Murderous eyes burned holes through his advisor as he readmitted the boy back into the center, mumbling things to the nurse behind the desk as he did so, saying something like, “It’s a shame really… I thought things were better, but I was wrong,” and, “He put his older in the hospital. His sister is an emotional wreck. His father doesn’t know what to do anymore, so I figured this is the safest place for Gaara-sama to be. Otherwise if Gaara doesn’t end up killing himself, his father surely will.”

Signing the paperwork he lastly says, “If only the boy’s mother was still around… Maybe things wouldn’t have gone this far.”

Gaara’s eyes twitch in narrowing and he begins to struggle at the mentioning of his deceased mother, but is reprimanded with harsh tugs at his bound arms. Settling pale eyes jerk in aversion at the familiar sight of blonde.

The boy was not wearing a similar white coat anymore, but instead sported a bright orange jumpsuit with his arms strapped behind his back in shiny metal handcuffs. There were three police officers dragging his lead-foot-pace forward until they reached the front desk, seeking release forms for the blonde.

The blonde lifts his head up from the floor momentarily and that was the first time Gaara had witnessed his eyes to be a bright, sky blue rather than the fiery red signifying death and hatred. Naruto’s irises widened just a tad at the lock of eyes with the redhead from a few weeks ago, this now being his third encounter with him.

“You,” is the only word exchanged between the two of them; this time coming out of the blonde’s mouth before he’s jerked forcefully and gets a deep bellowing over his head, “No talking.”

There’s a defiant look in those sapphire orbs and he snorts disrespectfully and gives them a moment or two of silence before he attempts conversation, “So you’re back again, huh?”

Gaara doesn’t speak, but gives him a look of acknowledgement that Naruto understands and accepts.

He continues, “I’m getting’ out of this shithole and goin’ into a different one. But I’ll fucking get out,” and he has this knowing, cocking smirk plastered onto his surprisingly sunny-looking face and is then man handled none too gently.

“I said no talking!” The head officer growls and another jerks the boy around a bit more and grins haughtily, wordlessly telling everyone how much he loves job by having the upper hand over a boy that was much smaller than him.

“Yea, so shut your damn trap,” he mutters quietly, loud enough for only Naruto to hear.”

“Fuck off you shit-eating scum-fuck!” Naruto colorfully swears and wriggles in his cuffs, jingling the chains around his wrists. The officer despite his rank swiftly lifts his hand and prepares to strike the blonde down for his disrespect, but is deftly caught in a very intense, entrapping gaze before him. The man stops and slowly pivots his head to find a pair of light green eyes gunning him down, looking menacing under the heavy dark rings around them.

The officer’s hand retreats back down to his side and a bead of sweat trickles down the side of his face in nervousness. Backing down, he takes a wary step behind the blonde to put as much distance as he can between himself and the livid redhead.

Naruto glances at the policeman behind him and then averts his eyes to Gaara and he tips his head downward, smirking some; his way of saying thanks, “Heh.”

“Let’s go, Naruto,” his head officer says and tugs on the boy’s arm, escorting him away from the front desk and towards the main entrance. The boy doesn’t resist, but stops when he reaches Gaara’s side, his shoulder lightly touching the other boy’s.

“Keep that up, and I’ll be seein’ ya real soon,” and Gaara meets his gaze again, giving him a dangerous glare and watches Naruto’s optics flash from blue to a slit red and back again before the blonde’s bumped from behind.

“Let’s GO,” the man orders more firmly this time and the cuffed blonde mumbles to the slightly taller boy, “See ya ‘round.” And the redhead briskly twists with a pissy growl, trying to reach the blonde and is fiercely restrained by his guardsman. Naruto chuckles mischievously, shoulders shaking with every quieted laugh until he was out the door and shoved in the plastic-molded backseat of the police vehicle.

Gaara watched the boy up until the car pulled out of the lot and vanished down the street and the blonde’s blue eyes never left the redhead’s for even a second until he could no longer see the asylum.

I shift in my seat, propping my elbow back up into the desk as I turn my quiet gaze out the gray-lit window. Sasuke and Naruto still haven’t returned from class. But… I suppose with Kakashi-sensei kicking them out they probably wouldn’t. Or at least Naruto wouldn’t; Sasuke might…

Slouching forward I scribble senseless things across my half-filled notepaper, listening to Kakashi drag on and on about nothing in particular.

Those two were building a rather strange relationship -- Naruto and Sasuke, that is -- I couldn’t help but to be concerned. After all, I knew Naruto way better than Sasuke and therefore, knew what to expect under each occurring circumstance.

But… and I slump more, I guess there really was nothing I could do. After all nothing extremely horrible has happened that I know of and I really shouldn’t be interfering with other peoples’ business. Naruto would probably just yell at me or something. I sigh and recline across my desk, just placing my head between my arms comfortably and I let my eyes slowly close.

--

[Sasuke’s POV]


Naruto’s silent the entire walk back to our first period, forehead puckered in confusion and his hands were shoved deep into his pockets in silent musing. I wish for an instance I could surmise his thoughts; reach deep into his innermost musings and pull them out for me to see.

Reaching our classroom I place my fingers in the indented slot of the door and I turn to notice that Naruto has soundlessly stopped a few feet away from me, looking at the floor beneath him as if he could see his own reflection there. Studying the tile carefully he looks as though he didn’t want to even go back to class and I finally say softly to him, “We don’t have to go back in.”

Naruto looks up at me, startled out of his pensive silence.

“There’s only ten minutes of class anyway… We can go and sit in the courtyard or something… until next period. If you want, I mean.”

The blonde doesn’t respond right away, returning to his tacit thinking and watching the floor under his feet. Finally he says to me, “Yea, okay,” suggesting he didn’t care, but at the same time was grateful for the offer; his ticket out of having to face all the leering eyes of the classroom if we were to return.

So instead of returning to class we sat silently in the courtyard, under the same tree Ino and I relaxed under the other day. It was colder than it was on the roof, which didn’t make much sense, but I shivered against the wind and crunched up my legs to my chest in attempts at making myself as small as possible.

Naruto flexed against the tree, sitting a foot or two away from me and looks completely relaxed as though the cold didn’t bother him. He stares up into the boughs above us silently, still obviously deep in thought.

I slouch forward and hug my knees thoughtfully, finding myself content with just watching the blonde mind himself. It was amusing to watch the different contortion of facial expressions he made with his inner debate. He went from being confused, to angry, to sad, and back to puzzled. I tried not to laugh, looking away for a minute until I has myself under control.

“So,” Naruto quietly breaks the silence, immediately attracting my attention, “you’re cool with us… coming to your house tonight?”

My face deadpans slightly at him despite he’s not returning the gaze and I sarcastically reply, “No, I’m totally inviting you guys over against my will.”

Naruto looks up at me then and shoots me a dirty look and I sit back against the tree with my arms still wrapped around my legs. Snorting I say, “Of course it’s okay. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t have offered.”

“Well you always make it sound like you don’t gotta choice,” Naruto rather somberly mumbles, mimicking my former sitting position and draws his knees close to himself and envelopes them.

I’m quiet, apprehensive in replying because he was right. I always did make it sound like it was a bad thing, but… I guess in all honesty I was a BIT uncomfortable with it under the circumstances of everything that’s happened over the week’s time.

I run my fingers through the back of my hair and respond softly, “Well, I have been through hell since meeting you guys,” and Naruto passes me a sharp look as if daring me to start something. “But… I suppose I trust you guys.”

Now Naruto’s angry state turns to that of surprise, looking baffled at my last statement.

“I mean, Neji, Gaara, and Kiba did come and save us, right?” I ask and look over Naruto pensively. Naruto’s bright blue eyes are pouring right back into my own and it sends chills down my spine -- not cold ones, but warm ones. “They could have left me there and just got you out of there, but they saved my ass too,” and I rub the back of my head uneasily.

Naruto sits back for a minute to think, then laughs and rubs the underside of his nose cheekily, “Heh, I suppose they thought your ass was worth saving.”

I smirk back at him, “Yea, I suppose.” A brief second of silent drifts around us and without looking at him I thoughtlessly ask, “Do you?”

The blonde looks at me rather quickly and blinks twice, inquisitive, but highly confused.

Returning the gaze I ask again in a better format, “Do you think my ass was worth saving?”

He stares at me in bewilderment and a pink hue dashes across his face and he inches quickly away from me, spluttering, “Wha--what the hell kinda question is that, Sasuke?!”

Smirking I turn back away from him and comfortably lean back and tip my head forward in rest and close my eyes, “Hn, dobe.”

Naruto bristles suddenly and growls out slowly, drawling my name, “Sasuke~!” He clenches his fists and screeches, “Don’t call me that!”

“Whatever,” and I release my legs and stretch them out casually, “dobe.”

“RRR!” And Naruto suddenly lunges for me, about to tackle me to the cold grass, but somehow I manage to deftly capture his wrists and shove him backwards, gripping him tight so my body weight is lifted over him. With a loud, hurtful thud Naruto winces and lefts out an audible “oof” and dizzily stares up into my shadowed face. I released his wrists in order to catch my quickly falling weight so I wouldn’t land on top of him and my hands clasp the ground inches from the blonde’s head.

My lips suddenly part, mouth gaping slightly as I realize what predicament I just created from myself and just at the thought my heart begins pounding in my ears, drowning out the sound of the wind around me.

Naruto is pinned beneath me and I’m kneeling over him…in a way that was… well, not good and judging by the clueless, but faint smirk on Naruto’s face I was turning about fifty shades of red. I swallow slightly, drawing a sharp breath as my heart continues to deafen out all noise. There’s this inexplicable wishy-washy feeling that floods over me, making my body tingle with this incredible warmth despite the bitter cold and I feel my hands instinctively move closer to his head and entangle themselves in his hair.

The blonde’s bright blue eyes stretch a bit, pupils almost looking like tiny slits and suddenly the bell chimes loudly over us.

I sit up quickly with another fierce blush and Naruto’s cheeks look just as winded as mine. Standing I brush myself off and clear my throat, running a hand uneasily through my hair and shake the strands out. Naruto sits up slowly, not looking at me and instead off to the side somewhere, face contorted in some sort of pout with his eyebrows drawn down. I was grateful that the bell had rang because I had NO idea what just happened a moment ago; it was like I wasn’t in control over my body for that short time. Releasing my hair and a sigh I look down at the blonde who’s still scowling off at nothing, looking mortified and I just quietly extend my hand to him,

He looks up at the sight of movement and catches my hand with his eyes first and they pan up slowly to meet my gaze. His blush darkens then and his face tightens in a scowl again and I swing my head back towards the school in motion to head back and he takes the offered hand rather grudgingly. Pulling him to his feet he stands silently and oddly enough we don’t let go of each other’s hands for a moment as though concentrating on the warmth radiating off each other.

And as if realization smacked him dead in the face, Naruto’s face twisted in a disturbed grimace as though he were caught naked and he briskly releases my hand with another bright red tinge to his cheeks. Our hands retreat then into our pockets for warmth and we both look up at the school before heading back.

I smirk slightly -- no, smiled -- at Naruto then as if I just uncovered this huge, dark secret of his.

Maybe this crazy excitement of the week’s not so bad after all.


--

I guess I had been so distracted throughout the day thinking non-stop of what happened during first period today that I hadn’t realized that the day just passed by so quickly. Hell I didn’t even remember much of lunch -- I vaguely recall running into Ino and Sakura, but not together and then finding Neji and walking with him to the school’s roof where I spent the rest of lunch with him, Naruto, Kiba, and Gaara. Kiba persisted on clinging to me most of the period with Naruto shooting him wayward glares and swears every now and again. I just did my best to block out the irritating noise.

But before I knew it the last bell of the day rung loudly and people went running out in excitement for their one-day-weekend. Gathering my things I pick up my school satchel and step outside of the classroom and to my surprise Sakura’s waiting for me outside.

I blink, “Sakura?”

“Hey, Sasuke! What’s up?” She asks me with this bubbly sort of bounce.

“Uh, not much,” I respond and shift my slightly weighted satchel over my shoulder for better comfort.

“Good,” Sakura rather slowly answers and her eyes veer off to the side momentarily. With a nervous scratch of her cheek she quietly asks, “Hey, do you mind if we walk home together?”

I blink a few times at her as if I didn’t quite understand her question and finally answer, “Um, well… The guys are supposed to be coming over my house tonight for the project.” Sakura’s previously hopeful face downed at that and I continue, “I don’t know if we’re meeting to go home together or if they’re coming over later…”

Seeing the rather crushed look on the girl’s face I was immediately hit with a wave of guilt and I say, “Why don’t we go find them so I can find out? If they’re coming over later than we can walk home together, okay?” And her face lights up again as bright as it can be. “And if not I promise to walk home with you another day.”

Satisfied with that response she energetically nods her head and together we walk the corridors to the entrance of the school, swapping out our shoes from our indoor to our outdoor ones and make leave to find the gang-- literally.

Neji’s not present, apparently having already left, but Kiba, Gaara, and Naruto are all chit-chatting at the school gate patiently.

Upon my arrival all heads and eyes turn to Sakura and I and there’s a very puzzled, but not so nice look on Naruto’s face.

“Sakura?” He asks quizzically, “What are you doing here?”

I speak for her. “She and I were going to walk home together,” I blatantly state. “But before I left I wanted to find out what you guys were doing first.”

Naruto’s face suddenly turned sour at that and he crosses his arms, frustrated, “Well no shit-Sherlock, we’re going to your house tonight, duh.”

“I KNOW that,” I grumble back in aggravation. “I wanted to know if we’re all going together now or meeting up later.” Naruto just gives me this look, pressing for me to continue. “Because if we’re meeting up later tonight then I was going to walk home with Sakura.”

Sakura inches closer to me for a minute and gives the blonde this very hopeful stare, wordless pleading with her eyes.

Naruto’s face contorts into this scowling pout and his face flushes a bit in frustration and he lets out a growl to show just how aggravated he was and ruffles his hair messily, “UGH. We’ll meet up later -- that way we can go and get stuff for the night.”

“…for the night?” I ask queerly and the blonde burns me down with this ridiculous stare suggesting I might’ve been the most clueless person in the world.

“We’re staying the night -- remember?”

Oh, right… I did say they could do that, didn’t I?

I scratch the back of my head foolishly and mumble, “OH yea,” quietly to them and nod. “Okay then, call me when you’re on your way?”

“Sure thing!” Kiba chimes in happily and loops his arms with Gaara and Naruto. “So we’ll see ya later then, Sasu-chan!” And he leans forward, getting close to my cheek for a hasty smooch and Naruto yanks him backwards suddenly, nearly knocking the three of them over in his power.

“LET’S GO, DOG-BREATH!” Naruto grits out and yanks on his arm, Kiba jerking Gaara by accident.

“Okay, okay! JEEZ not so hard!” Kiba loudly whines and curls into Gaara for protection.

I sweat slightly and am suddenly grateful to be walking home with Sakura instead of these three -- mainly Naruto and Kiba. I hope this isn’t what I was going to be looking forward to tonight, because if that was the case I may no longer be sane by the end of the night.

Sakura just chuckles as a fuming Naruto proceeds to drag the two off with him and she turns jade eyes up to me and gives me a cute smile, “Shall we then?”

“Yea,” I answer her and we make our way home.

During our peacefully cold walk I quietly strike up conversation with the pink-haired girl, “So, is there anything on your mind?”

“Huh?” And she sharply looks up at me, looking quite like a deer caught in the headlights and then averts her eyes quickly with a faint blush, tucking back a strand of fallen hair behind her ear, “Oh? What makes you ask that…?”

“Well… you’ve never asked to walk home with me before,” I point out the obvious with a half-assed shrug of one shoulder, readjusting the satchel over the other. “I just thought maybe there was something you wanted to talk about.”

The girl outright laughs and then asks herself and me, “Am I that easy to read?”

Reassuringly I give her a genuine smile and respond with, “No, I just had a hunch is all.”

There’s a bit of silence that comes between us as we round the block and finally Sakura says, “I had a talk with Ino last night,” and that makes us both stop in our tracks for a minute.

Curiously I turn to her, “Oh really?” I tried not to sound too weirded out because as far as I was concerned Sakura doesn’t know that Ino told me everything about their past together.

“She told me… that she told you everything,” her voice is quiet, sad-sounding almost and it got me a little worried.

“You know what,” and I shift towards her, “why don’t we go get something to eat?”

“Yea, sure,” and she passes me this lost kind smile and we cross the street to the nearest burger shop.

After promptly ordering food we take a booth by the window on the farthest side of the restaurant quietly. We begin eating together for a few minutes silently and finally I pipe up after swallowing a bite, “So… what exactly did Ino tell you?”

Sakura smiles faintly and her eyes wander across the surface we ate on, “That two days ago you two skipped out on third period and sat in the courtyard talking about our past together.”

I stare at her in concentration before apologetically mumbling, “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you sooner.”

Sakura shakes her head at me and a more genuine smile forms, “Nah, it’s cool. I know you were just respecting my privacy. Not that Ino did, apparently.”

“Well,” and I rub the back of my neck, “I guess that was kinda my fault.” Jade eyes look up at mine curiously and I continue, “I could tell Ino wanted to tell me, but she didn’t know how to go about it, so I pretty much just forced her to.”

Sakura set her half-eaten burger down to take a drink and says, “Ino never really was good at talking about her real feelings or what’s on her mind. I pretty much had to force things out of her too.”
Hearing that made me feel better and less of an ass.

“So now you know… that Ino and Naruto are blood-siblings, and Naruto’s my step-brother.”

“Yea,” I say softly. “I can tell that he really cares about you, though.”

Sakura chortles and waves her hand in front of her face as if something burned, “Yea, right. We were kinda close a while back, but… I’m nothing more than a replacement sister for him.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” and Sakura cocks an unsure eye at me. “He let us walk home together. If he’s really as bad as you say he is he would have refused to let you go with me.”

Sakura’s quiet as she takes that into thought and smiles at her drink some, “I guess,” and then she looks up at me with this sort of coy grin, “or maybe it’s not me at all.”

“Huh?” I blink at her in quandary and take a rather uneasy sip of my drink, not really liking where this was going by the look on her face.

“It might be just because of you,” and she props her chin up against two fists and gives me this cheeky smile.

I snort at her and roll my eyes, “Yea, whatever,” and take a long sip of my drink.

“I think he likes you.”

I spit my drink out. Sakura laughs loudly as I begin a wild cough, trying to recover from the girl’s outrageous statement, “WHAT~?!”

Giggling, “You heard me.”

Wiping my mouth off on my sleeve tentatively I start chuckling nervously, “Yea, right, okay. First of all, Naruto pretty much hates my guts and he’s made that clear! Second off we wouldn’t even have anything to do with each other if it weren’t for this retarded-ass assignment!” My fist pounds the table with much emphasized irritation and Sakura just giggles again.

With an aggravated twitch of my eye, brow furrowed I blab, “Look, you remember my first day of school and how I got into trouble with Gaara and Neji?”

Still smiling, she says, “Yea.”

“Yea, well after school I was stupid enough to think I could take a ‘short cut’ home through the back alleys -- and guess who I ran into?”
Sakura’s smile is gone and is replaced with a surprised “o” shape, eyes wide.

“That’s when I got to meet Kiba and Naruto -- or should I say Kyuubi at that time?”

The girl’s eyes widened further, iris shrinking to small circles and she drops her cup on the table, only spilling small contents being that it was half gone. I jump in surprise as she stares at me utterly horrified.

“You… you met Kyuubi?”

Giving her a rather estranged look I pad the damp spots of the table with napkins and answer her, “Yes.”

Sakura looks freaked, like she just watched someone get brutally killed and I suddenly realized that the topic matter of “Kyuubi” was not a good one.

“Kyuubi,” Sakura very shakily begins to explain, “is Naruto’s alternate personality.”

Alternate personality? Naruto seemed like the same person to me,
maybe a little more violent then… and other then having a different eye color every so often [which I was still convinced they were theatrical contacts] Naruto didn’t seem to be or act like another person.

By far confused now, I murmur, “Alternate personality? What do you mean?”

Sakura’s head drops for a moment to the seat beneath her and her eyes shake worriedly, “I guess… Ino didn’t tell you that, huh?”

Curiosity peaked I lean slightly over the table towards the pink-haired girl, “Didn’t tell me what?”

“Naruto’s… not normal,” is what she very quietly mumbles to me with a downcast face.

That sounded very familiar and I suddenly recall my rooftop conversation with Neji yesterday: “Naruto’s… not exactly normal.”

Perplexed I feel myself briskly run fingers through my dark locks in aggravation. Why does everyone keep saying this? What the hell am I missing?

“Naruto,” Sakura continues again as if on cue, “was diagnosed with an alter ego as a child. The doctor’s called it his ‘inner demon’ because he would go into wild fits and become uncontrollable -- and being that you’ve met Kyuubi I’m sure you’ve seen this -- his eyes turn the color red and his pupils look slit.”

So they’re not contacts.

“Okay,” I intervene then with a lift of my hand, “when I met ‘Kyuubi’ he didn’t act much different from ‘Naruto.’” Sakura gives me this puzzled look and I explain. “They kidnapped me.” Now the girl looks surprised and thin pink eyebrows rise at me in disbelief.

“What?”

“Yea. Kiba and Gaara had fun roughing me up in the alley, then tied me up and threw me in the backseat of Neji’s car,” I tell her rather seriously, reclined against the booth and talking as though it were no big deal.

Sakura’s hands raise to her mouth in dismay, “Omigosh,” she breathes out rapidly to the point where it was almost incomprehensible, “are you okay?”

“Well, I’m still alive aren’t,” and I playfully smirk at her. She stops short of her next sentence to give me the evil eye and she crosses her arms huffily over her bosom. I mentally make note of that NOT being funny.

“Why did they kidnap you?”

“I really don’t know,” I say quite unsurely, playing with my leftover fries. “I guess because they knew I came from some ‘big-top’ family they figured they could probably get money from me.” I end that with a careless shrug.

Sakura frowns at me in frustration, her forehead puckering at me in worried concentration. Looking up at me she asks, “They didn’t do anything bad did they?”

I let out a sigh and honestly tell her, “Well, I got roughed around, almost stabbed in the head and felt up a little by Kiba, had a gun pointed at my face courtesy of Neji and then I got decked in the face by Naruto -- or Kyuubi, whoever you want to call him.”

“How… did you get away?” Sakura asks as though I should have died back there.

“Surprisingly enough they let me go -- or rather, Naruto did.”

“Why?”

I shrug again, “Dunno really. I remember Kiba and Naruto getting into a blow-up -- something about Naruto’s past I’m guessing and he blew up and almost shot Kiba’s head off.” Sakura doesn’t look at all surprised by this and only sighs in irritation, sitting back against the booth again comfortably.

“That’s not unusual,” is her sarcastic reply as she clucks her tongue in annoyance.

I don’t respond to that, feeling no need and lean forward curiously, folding my arms over the table, “Say, Neji warned me about Naruto yesterday… Is it for the same reason? For Naruto’s disorder?”

“Probably,” she answers quietly. “Everyone who’s in close contact or has been knows.”

I frown at her, my eyes downcast, “Tell me something.” And Sakura’s eyes meet mine deeply, jade eyes pouring through me. “How did your mother and Naruto’s father even come to be? What happened to Naruto’s real mother?”

There’s a pensive look of concentration in my eyes as I lift my arms for fingers to thoughtfully lace together. “If Naruto and Ino’s mother died last year and your mother and Naruto’s father have been together since you were children… it wasn’t separation by death.”

I guess Sakura was wordlessly giving me credit for my vast knowledge because she was silently swirling her drink around in her hand. She takes a sip and then sets it back down on the table, “Their mother couldn’t take it anymore. She actually had to endure just as much counseling for herself as Naruto did.

Because of Naruto’s disorder she had to become a stay-at-home-mom and due to that she took the brunt of all Naruto’s violent and unstable behavior. She had to watch the looks of the neighbors and the schoolteachers and kids -- the looks of pure hatred or fear directed at her son.

Growing up Naruto was literally labeled a demon.” Sakura stares deeply into her reflection through the half-empty cup forlornly. “It was hard… growing up and watching that. Eventually the woman had enough, the erratic behavior of her son and the scorns and hate directed at her from complete strangers drove her away and she filed for divorce, only claiming custody for Ino.”

“Which,” I continue her following sentence, “explains Naruto’s hatred for his sister.”

“Yes. She was chosen to go with their mother, not him – he got left behind. His father was nothing to be proud of really, but it’s not like he was bad person, just not the best father, I suppose. Not even to me.”

Sakura looks up into my apologetic eyes and she smiles if off, “But, I think now that he’s met you… he might be better off.”

I scowl tightly at her, not thinking that last statement was funny, but she laughs aloud anyway.

“Well, it’s getting late,” Sakura says softly and stands, extending a friendly hand to me. I smile somewhat and take the offered hand, standing from the booth where we dump our trash and exit the small eatery.

Walking down the street again in a amiable silence Sakura finally passes me a rather happy gaze and says, “I’m glad we talked, even though I wish I were the one to tell you everything and not Ino – but – still,” and she shrugs it off.

“Well, I’m glad I got a little light shed on some of my questions,” I chime back, shifting my school bag carefully over my shoulder.

“Yea,” Sakura answers back softly and stops on the next corner.

“Well, this is where I break off, I’ll see ya Monday, okay?”

I smirk and nod,” Yea, see ya later. Be careful the rest of the way home.”

Sakura’s blush is covered by a huge grin, “I’m a lot stronger than I look – but thanks for caring. See ya!” Giving me an energetic wave she parts from me down the street rather quickly.

The walk home was pleasantly quiet. No short cuts through alleys and no bumbling homeless men trying to attack me, just peace and quiet. I had to say under the circumstances I was actually looking forward to the get-together tonight at my place, thinking now that I more knowledge pertaining to Naruto’s past we might come to a better understanding – that and now I had stuff to actually put down for the project.

Of course that doesn’t mean it will be any less awkward.

Ah, well.

I decided there was much preparing to do for tonight, making sure things were cleared with the parentals and there was to be no pesky-brothers invading my privacy of the assignment; that was Itachi included.

While straightening my room up my cell phone loudly chirps at me from across my dresser and just as I stroll to pick it up I hear the door bell ring and there’s rambunctious noise coming slightly muffled from the far end of the condo. My eyes widen, but one brow furrows downward as I step out of my room, idiotically staring down the hall.

Are they here already?

Suddenly I dread the oncoming night when I hear my mother call for me, telling me that my friends were here.

I suck in my breath and move to greet them at the door. And sure enough in the parlor stood Kiba, Gaara and Naruto.

Looking baffled I’m about to ask about the sudden phone call AND doorbell ring when I’m floored – literally. Kiba had tackled me hard with a thrust of his arms around my neck, squeezing me until I had difficulty breathing.

“Waa—Sasu-chan! This is your house?! IT’S HUGE!”

“G-get off!” I squirm under him, embarrassed to have been attacked like that in front of my mother, but the woman just smiles and presses two gleeful hands to her cheeks.

“I just knew you’d have no problem making new friends at school, didn’t I tell you?”

“NOT helping, mom!” I roar and manage to push Kiba off, standing rather abruptly with a frazzled brush of my clothes. Grumbling obscenities to myself lowly I regain composure and turn to the group,

“Mom, this is Kiba, Naruto, and Gaara.”

“’Sup, Uchiha-san!” Kiba barks happily, extending a quick and friendly hand to my mother and I felt my whole body spike up in surprise.

But good-naturedly my mother just laughs and shakes the boy’s hand, “Hello there, Kiba!”

There’s a soft, muttered, “Hey,” from Naruto, which I completely expected.

But what surprised me the most was when Gaara bows, albeit lightly, from the waist in greeting and softly, but deeply says, “Thank you for having us over, Uchiha-san.”

I almost fell over, but my mother just blushes a bit and smiles cheekily, “Now, now, no need for such formalities, and you all are welcome over anytime.”

My shoulders sink in relaxation as if some huge weight had been removed from my body and I usher the three behind me with a wave of my hand, “Come on, you guys can put your things in my room for now.”

Kiba’s happily following at my heels, followed then by Naruto and Gaara walking side-by-side all lugging their belongings.

“There’s a guest room that you guys can use for tonight,” and I jab my thumb at the closed door on the right in direction, “so just let me know.”

“I’m sleeping in Sasu-chan’s room!” Squeals Kiba, getting a throaty growl from Naruto and an irritated response, “no you’re not,” from me.

Stopping at the end of the hall I give the doorknob on the far left a twist and shove the entry way open.

The first thing I hear when I open my door is, “HOLY BED!” courtesy of Naruto.

Okay so maybe a king-sized bed WAS a bit much for one person, but it’s not like I bought or picked it out – crazyass parents.

Kiba whoops and throws his things across my floor and unceremoniously dives face-first onto my substantial mattress.

Flopping hard onto his back Kiba grins widely at my ceiling and boldly declares, “Now I’m definitely sleeping in Sasuke’s room!”

“Like hell you are!” a pissy Naruto shouts and sets his things down, Gaara doing the same.

“Okay quit it!” I yell with an angry raise of my hands. “If all you guys are gunna do is fight then go home!”

Naruto and Kiba freeze and stare at me in slight dismay, but Kiba just grins me off and the blonde snorts, looking away.

Little kids, I SWEAR.

Gaara’s the only mature one here. I’ll just kick Kiba and Naruto out and let him stay despite the eerie stares he passes me.

With a ruffle of my hair and a sigh I say, “Just get your things ready and I’m gunna get us some drinks and stuff.” Nods and okays are my answers and I turn out of my room to fetch said items. I barely get halfway down the hall before I’m confronted with the displeased eyes of Itachi.

Peeved with him blocking my path, I ask, a little annoyed, “What do you want?”

Itachi breaks eye contact with me for just a moment to study the occupants of my bedroom before asking with a red-hazed stare, “Are those your friends?”

He’s got this untrusting look in his eye suggesting that deep into the night he was going to assassinate someone. I frown at that and shake the shiver that was beginning to form under his icy gaze, “Yea, so?

What gives?”

My brother’s silent, studying the gang again from the awkward angle in the hall and says without looking at me, but bitterly, “Nothing.” He brushes past me softly and vanishes into his bedroom. I wanted to barrage him with more questions, but it suddenly struck me obvious that Itachi wasn’t stupid. But it was odd that he would know that those were the people “I-got-into-a-fight-with-after-school” like I told him. To me that would’ve been hard to figure out, but Itachi has always had that roundabout creepy way of knowing EVERYTHING and ANYTHING about someone.

I just scowl angrily at his closed door and finish the hallway and into the conjoining kitchen on my left.

My mother turns her head slightly over my shoulder to see me and resumes her dinner preparations, “What’cha need, hun?”

“Just some drinks and snacks for the guys so we can work,” I say and pull the fridge open with a loud clattering of glass jars.

“Always working, hm? Don’t work too hard, okay? Relax a bit tonight,” she says and smiles without looking at me, continuing to meticulously peel potatoes.

“Sure mom,” I assure her and shift soda cans around in my arm uneasily, two baggies stuffed of mochi and pre-packaged onigiri hanging from my mouth. I shut the fridge with a backward kick of my foot and saunter back into my room where Kiba’s quite happily sprawled on the uppermost section of the bed, Gaara sitting on the end and Naruto between them.

All eyes are on me and I feel one of the snack bags fall from my mouth and drop to the floor.

Why are they ALL on my bed?!

All eyes are on me at my bewildered return, some patient others not and I suddenly feel very irritated.

“Hn,” and I close my eyes to show I was annoyed and I gather the goods once more, setting them all down in the center of my gigantic sleeping vicinity and climb aboard with the rest of them, muttering, “I hope you all are comfortable.”

“Sure am!” Kiba pipes, not taking heed to my frustration.

Naruto, however, picks up on it quickly and fixes me with a harsh, ice blue stare, “Where the hell did you WANT us to sit? The floor?”

I frown tightly at him, the two of us now having a showdown of glares and I counter with, “Yes, actually.”

Kiba, thoroughly amused just sits back and cackles and Gaara doesn’t pay us any mind at all now that it was Naruto and I fighting and just grabs an onigiri from the pile silently. He picks apart the packaging, removing the plastic coverings carefully before crumpling it and disposing it next to him rather orderly.

Gaara was scary as hell sometimes, but at least he has manners.

Sitting back, Naruto and I irritably give a loud harrumph and I slap my notebook down onto my lap and squirm on the mattress to get comfortable. “Okay, we covered everyone’s ‘background’ at Naruto’s place at the beginning of the week EXCEPT Naruto,” and we lock stares. “So you need to give at least ME something to write down seeing as Gaara and Kiba probably know everything themselves already.”

Naruto’s glowering at me so hard I thought his head might explode.

Finally after a few struggling moments he snorts and grits out, “Whatever, later, I dun feel like it.”

It was odd that he didn’t want to talk about it in front of Gaara and Kiba being that I was almost positive they knew everything – or at least way more than I did.

More than irritated I shift around on the bed and pull a pink-colored mochi from inside one of the bags and pop it into my mouth, letting half the doughy ball hang out between my lips as eyes scan over the information I currently have written down from our last actual project-get-together. It wasn’t much being that I only had notes on Gaara and Kiba; and in all sense I could just write stuff down now about Naruto now that I actually knew stuff, but I wanted HIM to tell me. It would be awkward to put stuff down about him that he never told me himself and that was liable to start more trouble than necessary.

Getting him to open up to me was going to be a pain in the ass as it is.

“Okay… so where else do you guys want to start then? We’ve got initial background information, so we need to write stuff down like hobbies, likes and dislikes, favorite foods… etc,” I use the back of my pencil to scratch at the back of my head as I continue to look over my study notes.

Kiba jumps the gun at that, “Oohoohoohhh! I like dogs, my new puppy Akamaru and Sasu-chan!”

With an aggravated twitch Naruto promptly grabs a plastic-wrapped onigiri and hurls the food at Kiba’s head. It bounces off with a squish and Kiba yelps in more surprise than actual pain.

“Write something that makes sense, you fucking retard!” Naruto bellows deeply, Kiba giggling and shrinking away in pretend fear.

With a wild grin Kiba dares to ask, “What’s the matter, Blondie? Are ya jealous~?” and he drawls the last word purposefully and gets an angry blush from the blonde. Naruto growls loudly and lifts his foot brashly, kicking Kiba clear off the bed. Kicked boy just rolls around my bedroom floor quite literally laughing his ass off as Naruto grudgingly slides off my bed past me, striding to the far side of the room and rips open the closed doors of the balcony.

“What the hell are you doing?” I feel the need to ask in annoyance and the blonde hastily replies:

“Whatever the hell I want,” and he slams the glass doors behind him lighting a cigarette.

God damnit. At least he’s smoking outside.

I rub my temples in irritation and say to Gaara and Kiba, who was calming down from his little fit and clambering back onto the bed, “We’re not getting anywhere, guys. I didn’t invite you over to goof off,” and I direct that look towards Kiba.

“Aww, Sasu-chan~ come on, don’t be like that,” the boy coos and I instinctively thrust my palm out to catch his face before he can plant another kiss on me.

Kiba whines and flails behind my defense, saying something about me being cruel and Gaara just silently helps himself to more snacks. I look over to see Naruto still brooding outside and frown deeply.

Okay, so I didn’t mind hanging out, but I didn’t want to just dick around all night. I wanted to get SOME of this project done. So until Naruto decided to stop being a girl and come back inside I decided to continue without him.

“Kiba likes dogs – your new puppy Akamaru, right?” and he gives me a bubbly nod. “Okay, so we can write that down,” and I gesturingly wave to Gaara and he jots said things down on cue.

The brunette next to me reclines comfortably against my wall of pillows, crossing his arms behind my head and gives me this canine-smile, “I like sports too.”

Go figure somehow.

“What kind of sports?” I ask, pencil ready.

“I like basketball mostly, but I used to play soccer and dodge ball when I was kid,” and he closes his eyes and flashes me a pearly smile at his past accomplishments.

I nod, glad that Kiba was finally being serious about this and write the given information down, Gaara thankfully following my example.

Suddenly this rather stern, angry face forms across his tanned features and he blurts, “But I don’t like jocks – they piss me off.”
As random as it was I wrote it down anyway.

“Or bugs,” he continues thoughtlessly, “they weird me out,” and he looks over at our other participant. “’Kay, Gaara, your turn,” Kiba signals and leans forward long enough to snatch a plain mochi.

Addressed redhead doesn’t look all that enthused, but he answers anyway with this scrunched, but serious look on his face, “I don’t like the cold.”

Kiba and I just gawk at him silently.

Ignoring our idiotic stares Gaara just quietly continues, “And I… like onigiri.” Did Gaara just hesitate? Like he was embarrassed? Kiba and I were suddenly leaning forward, eyeing Gaara like some strange new specimen we found.

“Hobbies.” It was strict command and Gaara blinks at me, looking rather disturbed which was actually comical being that his facial features don’t change very often. I half-expected to get either beaten to a bloody pulp or at least get told to fuck off or something, but surprisingly enough he tells us.

“Cooking.”

My pencil drops.

I think even Kiba didn’t know that judging by the dismayed expression on his face.

“Cooking?” I felt the need to question and Gaara gives me a flat, simple nod of silence.

That was highly unexpected. For some reason I wanted to out-right laugh, but I didn’t and instead stayed quiet. I guess it was pretty admirable of him to have that kind of hobby, although he was apprehensive it seemed in telling us.

I smirk, unable to help it and write it down, “That’s cool. Cooking’s fun,” I reassure the redhead and he gives me this strange, but thankful look – or as thankful as someone like Gaara could get.

I decided next it was my turn to go and then I would drag Naruto’s sorry ass inside to give us some more info. Sitting back comfortably I tell them, “I like reading manga and drawing,” and they sit forward with sudden interest. “Anime mostly.”

“You draw anime?” Kiba’s got this foxy grin on his face like he was excited and even Gaara looked astonished, albeit curious.

“Yea – from time to time… I can’t really call it much of a hobby because my dad doesn’t approve of it,” and with that said I give the back of my neck a shameful rub.

“That’s bullshit,” Kiba scowls, crossing his arms indignantly. “My mom always tells me that if I take an interest in something I should go all out for it – of course with common sense, but… Well, ya know.” I guess it was Kiba’s odd way of giving me encouragement to continue my “hobby.”

“Kiba’s right,” Gaara suddenly speaks, scaring the hell out of me as usual, although I had to look him in the eye for a further explanation to his statement. “My father’s the same way, never taking an interest in the things I do for fun or supporting them,” he carefully unwraps another onigiri thoughtfully as he speaks.

I take his words deeply into consideration – their words actually. I feel a small blush creep onto my face and I duck my eyes slightly, mumbling shyly, “Thanks guys.”

Kiba just flashes another one of his big grins and Gaara nods amiably before the brunette barks out, “Okay, what else?”

I sit back again as if I had to think about it and say, “Well… I also like to read poetry on an occasion. But I don’t like large crowds and groupies,” it seemed kind of dumb, but it was the truth. I really was a loner for the most part.

“My favorite foods are onigiri and tomatoes,” I thought for a minute I caught a very brief, very faint smirk on Gaara’s face, but when I blinked it was gone. I continue lastly, “And winter is my favorite season.”

After a few minutes of intense scribbling Gaara and Kiba look up at me, tired.

“I’ll go get Naruto since he’s the last person to go… After this I suppose we can just hang out for a while.” Kiba pumped his fist in the air and Gaara looked a little more comfortable at that.

I slink off the bed, striding quickly across the floor where I pull one door open towards myself and step out into the brisk air. Naruto doesn’t look at me, but knows I’m standing beside him because he asks bitterly, “What do you want?”

“You’re the last to go,” I blatantly state, void of expression. “After that we can hang out.”

Naruto’s emptily staring down into the street beneath him, cigarette long burnt out and finished and he drops the butt carelessly down below.

“Yea…whatever,” and he turns from me and returns to my bedroom.

I sigh deeply and pass one last longing look across the balcony before returning inside myself into the warmth, shutting the large doors behind me. This was going to be one hellova LONG night.

--
end of chappie! KOMG this was a doozy XD; A LOT longer than I anticipated… I didn’t expect to write so much, but I did – but I’m sure you’re all not complaining… at least I hope not o_o;;
More SasuNaru influence to come in the next chapter – I know I’m starting the relationship slowly… please don’t hurt me XD;;

Please R & R!!