Hierarchy

Naruto stood there, staring blankly at Sasuke, not sure why the other boy was already naked, just… standing there. He’d never studied before, not really, so he wasn’t sure if this… was some kind of studying ritual. Cheeks flaming a brilliant pink, Naruto finally glanced away from the lithe boy, “Uh… are you supposed to be naked when you study?” He asked in a voice that was a lot higher than usual.

Thin dark brows drew together slowly, and Sasuke frowned at Naruto, the slightest hint of colour in his own cheeks, “ …What are you talking about?” He asked, the coldness in his voice wavering slightly.

Naruto still didn’t look at Sasuke, instead staring at one of the empty white walls, “I’ve never studied before… I didn’t know you were supposed to be naked…” He said with a small frown.

Sasuke stared at the other boy, gaze wavering slightly as he tried to decide whether or not the other was completely and utterly stupid, or if he was joking. Finally deciding the former, he shook his head, ducking down to grab his clothes off the floor, trying to hide the pinkness in his cheeks, “You are… the most incredibly stupid person I’ve ever met.” He said firmly.

Naruto’s eyes were very wide as he blinked a few times, blond brows drawing together slowly, “I… don’t understand,” He said again. It was a lot harder to learn without Kiba there to explain it to him…

Sasuke shook his head again, redressing quickly, “You want me to… actually teach you?” He asked slowly, “Like… school things?”

Nodding slowly, Naruto tilted his head to the side. Wasn’t that what he’d asked for?

Sasuke stared at the other boy in mild exasperation. Many, many, many times he’d been asked to tutor his peers. Never had they ever actually meant to be taught. Leave it to Naruto to ask him the impossible. “I can’t perform miracles,” He said a little coldly to mask his obvious embarrassment.

Naruto stared at Sasuke, his confusion reaching the breaking point, and he just… exploded, “Look!” He shouted, cheeks flaming pink, “Stop treating me like an idiot! I asked you for help, and I’m willing to work as hard as I can for this! Just because I’m not as smart as you doesn’t mean I don’t want to be!”

Taken a little aback by the outburst, Sasuke forgot to say something scathing in return, instead nodding slowly, “So you… actually want to learn something?” He asked slowly.

Naruto nodded, eyes still shining a little in anger. He liked Sasuke a lot, and it bothered him that the other boy thought he was so stupid… it’s not like he wanted to be stupid. He had tried, when he was younger, to be good at school, but the letters always got all mixed up in his books, and gave him a headache… and no matter what he did, no one wanted to help him. But then when he’d gotten to high school, everyone told him that no matter what his grades were like… he could still get into a good college. He was talented!

“Just make me smart,” He said with a firm nod, “You’re real smart, right, so there’s gotta be some kinda way that you can share it with me, yeah?”

Sasuke stared blankly at Naruto, text book almost falling through his hands before he shook his head, “Just… sit on the floor,” He said, his voice tight as he tried to resist the urge to either smack Naruto, or laugh at him. But he wasn’t going to be swayed by the other’s idiocy.

Naruto frowned a little, obviously disappointed by that, “…Oh. Well… okay…” He said slowly, moving to sit unceremoniously on the floor, “Are we gonna read a story?” He asked almost eagerly.

Sasuke stared at Naruto again, sighing a little as he opened the book, turning it towards the blond boy. “This. This is MATH.”

Naruto stared at the book a moment, blue eyes almost seeming to glaze over, before he shook his head and made a face, “I hate numbers.” He said with a firm nod.

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, Sasuke, slid off the bed and onto the floor, sitting with his legs crossed almost gracefully, “You have to learn math,” He explained, “Maybe if you can learn to pass, you’ll graduate because of more than your ability to run and throw a ball.”

Naruto sighed and nodded. It looked like Sasuke only liked guys who could do math. If Orochimaru-sensei could do it, well, then so could he. It wasn’t like he’d always been this way, not knowing how school worked or anything, it was just because he hadn’t really… wanted to pay attention in class, and now he just didn’t… understand anything. It wasn’t that he was stupid or anything. He just… needed a little extra help when it came to school stuff.

Sasuke stared at Naruto, wondering why the other had stopped speaking, “Hello?” He asked slowly, “Are you still with me?”

Blinking a few times, and shaking his head clear, Naruto nodded, “All right. Math first. I’m pretty good with History stuff. I memorize a lot of things fast…” He said slowly, trying to defend himself a little.

Still staring, Sasuke nodded, “I know. You’re in the top twenty-five for our class for history,” He allowed smoothly. He was still the first place, but there really wasn’t any helping that.

Naruto reached for his own math book, opening it slowly, gazing at the book, “Okay… so how do I do this?” He asked softly still a little wary about this. He knew he’d been the one to ask for it, but just… he half expected Sasuke to make fun of him, or else to say cruel things to him.

The first two years after their friendship ended… Sasuke had always managed to get in a cruel comment or two every couple of days, and Naruto had never really understood. He figured that maybe… it had been mean of him to put an end to a friendship that had probably meant a lot to both of them just because of school… but Sasuke had seemed to want it, too. In fact… the whole time he’d been ending their friendship, he’d been hoping that Sasuke would have said something like ‘It’s not worth ending our friendship’ or ‘It doesn’t matter if anyone likes us’, but it had ended up that all that Sasuke had said was ‘Good. I was planning on speaking to you anyways. You’re just not at the same level as me, and it would look bad for someone with an intellect as impressive as mine to be around someone as ridiculous stupid as you.’.

It had taken… three weeks before Naruto had remembered not to seek Sasuke out at breaks and at lunch. It had taken even longer than that before Naruto had stopped feeling a strange pang whenever Sasuke walked past him, or when he had made those comments to him.

“Hello? Hello?” Naruto heard Sasuke’s voice snap him back to reality, the hand waving in front of his face, “You in there?”

Naruto blinked, frowning, “Sorry. Long day.” He said simply. “Show me how to work right at the beginning?” He asked slowly.

Dark eyes widened a little as Sasuke grabbed an empty notebook. “Sure, we’ll do it in this book, and you can keep it, okay?” He offered, “I’ll write out an example, and then you can figure it out.”

Naruto smiled slowly, nodding, “Yeah, okay, thanks. So what’s first?” He asked.

Sasuke glanced down at the book, “All right, so first is a word problem, okay?”

Nodding slowly, Naruto swallowed hard. He was a little worried about looking stupid in front of Sasuke. “Okay. Just… show me how to do it, okay?”

Sasuke nodded, and wrote out the question first, “Okay, here it is:

Allie has an income which is five eighths that of Basil. Allie's expenses are one-half those of Basil and Allie saved 40% of his income. What is the percentage of his income that Basil saves?”

Naruto swallowed hard, nodding as he read over the problem, “…I… okay…”

Sasuke felt a momentary pang of pity for the blond boy, and began to work through the problem with him, “Okay, well… first off, write two equations in terms of the income and expenses of Allie and Basil.”

Brows drawn together in concentration, Naruto did as Sasuke told him, “Okay, what’s next?”

Sasuke glanced over what Naruto had written, “Okay, now… It is known that Allie saves 40% of his income. What does this mean?”

Naruto thought a moment before a slight dawning began to come over him, “Income saved equals the income minus expenses, right?”

A little bit surprised, Sasuke didn’t even notice the small smile that tugged at his lips, “Yes…”

Naruto felt a flutter of something akin to warm pride move through him as he continued to work through the problem. Finally they came to the answer, and Naruto came very nearly close to solving it himself, and he jumped up, cheering in pleasure, “I got it!!”

Sasuke nodded, watching Naruto as the boy started to do some kind of victory dance, proud amusement moving through him as he fought to maintain a cool, calm visage.

Eventually, Naruto managed to sit down, “Okay, problem number two! Only seventeen more to go!”

Sasuke nodded, resisting the urge to chuckle as he wrote out the next problem, watching as the blond boy tried to solve even more of this problem all by himself. He saw something in Naruto as the other was trying to solve the problem, something that he hadn’t seen in anyone anywhere since they were children. Something he’d missed more than he’d been able to explain; and it made him feel strange and warm inside.

~~**~~

It was close to three hours before Naruto was finished his homework, and Sasuke was standing with him at the front door.

“Thanks a lot…” Naruto said slowly, smiling with open honesty, “I’ll see you on Saturday?” He asked slowly.

Sasuke nodded, “Yeah. If you bring over a science book, too, I’ll help you work on your biology project as well.”

Nodding, Naruto took a step back, “Thanks, yeah. So… uh, have a good rest of the week…” It seemed strange that he was telling Sasuke to have a good rest of the week when he was going to be passing him at school the next two days. Really, really strange…

“…Yeah,” Sasuke said, blank expression faltering a little, “Well… bye…” He said slowly, closing the door and locking it, his back pressed against the door. He still had to go back up to his brother’s room like he’d promised before he could go and work on his own homework. It was going to be a long, probably sore evening.