Like Ninja Fighters

Like Ninja Fighters

Chapter 4: Battle of Mock Proportions

Four Years Previously, Day Before Start of Freshman Year

"Do you think this school will have lots of bullies like the last two?" Naruto wondered. Sasuke all but rolled his eyes.

They both sat outside of their new home, enjoying the last day before school began.

"We can't get expelled again for fighting off bullies, even if there are hundreds. Kakashi was already pissed enough the first two times. If there's a third time, he might actually go through with his threat to send us both to separate boarding schools. You know he’s worried that the psychologists keeping an eye on us have already hinted that they want to take us away from him. Not that they have anything legit to use."

"Exactly. It’s all nonsense! They can’t take us away from him. So there’s no real problem with that. But what's the point of knowing karate if we can't use it?"

"It's for self-defense."

"Self-defense? We don't need self-defense! We need to protect those who can't protect themselves. If we can't fight off bullies who pick on other kids, who do we fight?"

"We don't fight, that's the point. We are not ninja, Naruto. And if you really want to spar, we fight against each other."

"Yeah, I guess, but it just pisses me off when those bullies start stuff with other kids. How can I not want to pound their faces in?"

"But when you do that, they want revenge, and I have to bail your ass out of trouble."

"Come on! I can take fifteen against one. It just helps when it's the two of us 'cuz it goes faster."

"But then I get expelled with you."

"Then let me handle them on my own when they gang up on me!"

"No one else but me is allowed to punch you."

"Gee, thanks," Naruto gritted out sarcastically. "I love you too."

Sasuke smirked and gave a grunt of a laugh. A few moments passed in silence as they enjoyed their last day of summer. They'd had to move again when they'd got kicked out of their last school. The first school they got kicked out of was when they were twelve. The most recent expulsion had happened at the end of the previous school year, so they hadn't yet switched schools.

Even so, they didn't know what to expect. Kakashi had moved them from the home they’d lived in since being together as a family, wanting them to live in an area where they wouldn't attract trouble.

Not that they always hadn't gotten into trouble as they had both been picked on for being orphans when they were younger. They were used to defending each other verbally, their bond close because of their similar pasts.

Still, both Sasuke and Naruto had felt guilty about the move. Kakashi, who had been able to spend most of his time home with them working on his computer games, now had to switch jobs because the place that he used to work out of wouldn’t support their living expenses in the new area. He'd be gone a lot more from home and neither of them were overly pleased with that. Still, Kakashi had said he would be making a lot more money, and they would be living in a better area.

Even so, a better area didn't mean that there weren't any bullies or kids that didn't pick on anyone. They were everywhere. It just meant there were less of them – supposedly. Naruto wasn't convinced.

"What if we stage a fight?" Naruto mused.

"You're such an idiot. What's the point of that?"

"If you and I fight against each other we could sorta promote ourselves as being completely badass. If we look so cool, no one will want to challenge us, and just by being around, bullies would cower in fear of the thought of us kicking their asses. Make ourselves look so dangerous no one will want to mess with us."

"They'll want to fight you more if they think you're a good fighter. That's the problem. You beat up a bully, he gets his buddies and they try and take revenge."

"Yeah but if we get into a fight we can make ourselves look so awesome they'll be afraid to try anything. Plus, we're both new. We can spread rumors about how we've landed thirty guys in the hospital with how awesome our fighting is."

"Thirty-five. I think you're forgetting the five from in front of the movie theater."

"Those pansies?" Naruto scoffed, clearly not finding them worth counting in the number of people they actually had put into the hospital.

"They count; they had weapons. That and they would have hurt that group of girls pretty badly if we hadn’t stopped them. But besides that, how are we going to pull this off? If we fight each other, how will it not seem obvious we set it up? After all, not only are we brothers, but we're best friends."

"We're adopted brothers. We have different surnames; no one will even know we live together unless we tell them ourselves."

"The staff will know."

"Brothers fight too, and because we're adopted, they'll probably expect us to fight more," Naruto did his best to reason.

"If we're fighting against each other, we can't tell them that we put thirty-five people into the hospital because then they'll realize we did that together."

"Well, true, but we can elude to other things."

"You mean allude, idiot."

Sasuke held his tongue about the overall proposal, still not liking the idea, even if Naruto was doing a fairly decent job of tying in a lot of logical explanations.

Blue eyes flashed as a hint of jealousy and sadness crossed them.

Naruto would never admit to it, but it bothered him that he wasn’t as smart as Sasuke. Sasuke had always, and would always, be smarter than him in school. He had never been able to get his grades anywhere near Sasuke’s.

One of the reasons Naruto had even come up with this plan was because, in a way, if he had a reason to stay away from Sasuke at school, it wouldn’t be as painful as knowing that his own lack of intelligence kept him from being in the same academic classes as Sasuke.

"Besides, you're always in those genius level classes. Because of that, you and I are never in a class for long anyway. It's not like we see each other during school. I mean, we might have some extra classes together, you know the usual: gym or art, but didn't Kakashi want us to make other friends here anyway? We never make friends if it's just the two of us. We leave people out."

Naruto didn't add that it was usually Sasuke who prevented them from having other people join their two-man group. Sasuke was fairly anti-social. Having Naruto as a best friend was one thing: add one more person to the mix, and well, it didn't really mix.

"When you come up with stupid bull shit like this, it's easy to pretend I don't know you and that we're not friends," Sasuke grunted. Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"So is that a yes?"

"Hn."


- - - - - - - - - - - -


On the first day of school, Sasuke and Naruto got on the bus at the same bus stop, but made sure not to sit with each other.

They were only in the same homeroom because their surnames were close to each other. Homeroom was only for the first few minutes of class; from there they would be sectioned off to their skill level once their schedules were handed out alphabetically. They didn't even talk when they got their schedules for the year, trying to make it look like they didn't know each other.

It wasn't very hard. There were many new students as there were five main middle schools that fed into this particular high school. Some students knew each other, but at least they weren't the only ones who didn't know anyone else in the classroom.

Quickly texting each other back and forth, they found out that the only subject that they had together was family consumer sciences two days out of a six day changing cycle of classes.

Received message @ 7:58am: This sux. w/is famly consum scs neway?


Sent message @ 8:01am: Home economics. Learn to spell and stop texting me idiot. Class started.


Received message @ 8:02am: Loser. I no how 2 spel. Evry1 txts @ skool. @ end of day, meet me @ frt o skool 4 fite.

It was easy, really. They didn't even fake an argument. People didn't need to know why they were fighting, just see that they could fight and that they could fight well.

Sasuke caught Naruto's eye in the main entrance. There was a crowd of people standing in front of the doors that led in and out of the school. The loud hustle and bustle made it hard to hear conversations unless the person speaking stood right next to the person they were speaking to, or unless someone was shouting. Hence part of their reason not to even bother faking an argument – it would be too hard for others to hear them anyway.

As they approached each other, they brushed shoulders, putting their plan into action.

Naruto dropped his books (he'd later say Sasuke had pushed them out of his hand, and Sasuke had refused to pick them up.) Sasuke also dropped his books, and would later use the same story, making it hard to place the blame on either of them.

Sasuke reacted first; he grabbed Naruto's collar and pulled him closer. There was more room down one end of the front of the eight doors that all the students were currently trying to file out through. Sasuke blocked Naruto's return punch in his grasp, and Sasuke sent a kick to Naruto's shin, using his attacks to silently tell Naruto where they would continue the fight. Naruto easily dodged the kick to his shin, but he got the message. They had already decided that they didn't want to get expelled, so no major harm done to each other, or to any bystanders. That and Sasuke had only agreed as long as there were no others involved.

"Fight!" Someone yelled almost immediately after the two had come to blows. It didn't take long for a large crowd to gather around to watch what was going on.

Their attacks came in such a flurry it was hard for the students to even see what was going on. A body slam. A flip. A running jump kick, block, slam. Twist the wrist. Downward slash with the hand.

Kick, twist, punch.

They moved even faster as the fight wore on, making it hard for people to tell exactly what they were doing – and for them to see that Naruto and Sasuke weren’t really landing blows on the other.

"Enough!"

Sasuke and Naruto broke apart easily as two administrators stopped them by grabbing them by the scruff of their necks.

"Kuso," Sasuke hissed. They'd thought they'd have enough time to break up the fight before any teachers saw them. It would be less of a punishment if they weren't caught in the act, even if students later identified them. Still, even as they were being escorted to the office, they could hear the kids' reactions to their fight.

"Are they seniors?"

"Did you see how fast they moved?"

"That black haired guy is hot!"

"Did you see the way that blond tossed that guy? He’s so cool!"

"Wow! That was awesome. Just like in the movies!"

Sasuke was silently wishing he'd gotten to punch Naruto harder. Why had he agreed to go along with this stupid plan? Maybe because without Naruto, he knew he really didn't get along with anyone else. He knew that if he said yes, maybe people would have an excuse to stay away from him. Not to mention Naruto could have some other friends, and it would be okay. Sasuke wouldn’t get jealous because it was part of a ruse.

Sasuke found he was angrier at himself than his best friend. He should have told Naruto no.

Sasuke glanced sidelong at Naruto as they sat down in the principal's office, gauging Naruto's reaction to their predicament. Naruto gave him a miserable look of apology.

At least Naruto felt bad about how they were going to get expelled their first day. He knew it was his fault as he had goaded Sasuke into it. Hopefully Sasuke wouldn’t be too pissed at him.

"I see you two gentleman have a record of fighting," the principal said, flipping through their records.

"He's an idiot," Sasuke stated, "And he started it."

"You're a bastard! You put your hands on me first! You started the initial attack, AND you pushed my books out of my hands."

"You pushed my books first. Oh, I also hate you."

"And I hate you!"

It was then and there that Principal Sarutobi assumed that the two didn't get along at home. He actually took pity on them after reading both of their histories. Sasuke was orphaned after his brother murdered the family, and because of the tragedy, Sasuke had a history of mental instability. Naruto and his parents had been in a terrible car accident, the accident killing off his parents and initially leaving Naruto terribly crippled. It was amazing really. He had been paralyzed from the waist down, and the doctors had thought he'd be in a wheelchair the rest of his life. Seven months later he was walking, and in another four months, his health was like that of any other child his age. His recovery was really miraculous.

Knowing that the two boys could be acting up in school because of their past, Sarutobi decided he'd give them the benefit of the doubt.

"It is your first day here. Fighting is not to be tolerated. Under any other circumstance, a fistfight would result in a three day out of school suspension. As I'm feeling generous today, instead you will serve two consecutive after school detentions – two hours long each."

"Two after school detentions?" Sasuke breathed.

"That's it?" Naruto asked, looking surprised.

It was a lot better than Sasuke had expected too.

Unfortunately, by the time they had finished in the principal's office, they had missed their bus home.

Kakashi was less than pleased to get a phone call at his new job stating they'd gotten in a fight on their first day of school and that he would have to come and pick them up.

"At least it was with each other and no one got expelled," Naruto pointed out as he rode in the back of Kakashi's car. He should have kept his mouth shut.

"You two should know better!" Kakashi snapped. Both Sasuke and Naruto flinched. It was rare that Kakashi ever raised his voice. He was usually lenient, but with their past expulsions, he seemed to be cracking down on them finally. "I didn't teach you karate for you to keep getting in fights. I thought you both knew better than this. I wish I had never taught it to you." The disappointment was thick in the air. Naruto looked ashamed of himself, and Sasuke did his best not to look as disappointed in himself as he felt.

Kakashi was right. They shouldn't have gotten into a fight at all.

Kakashi sighed, and spoke more gently.

"If the social services think that you two are not getting along or are a problem together, they will take one or both of you away. Sasuke has a history of mental instability," Naruto shot a glance at Sasuke who didn’t seem to take offense to this statement. It was something that they already knew, but somehow, hearing Kakashi speak about it made it seem more realistic – and more of a potential threat. "They’re already suspicious because of the last two expulsions. Just don’t do anything stupid that will separate our family."

The next day, the two of them were on their best behavior at school, but the talk of their fight buzzed throughout the halls. They were instantly known, and they didn't need to spread rumors about how they had put thirty-five guys in the hospital; even wilder rumors spread without their aid.

"Ne, Naruto-kun, I heard that you took on twenty gang members all by yourself!"

"Sasuke-kuuun! I heard you stopped a gun-robber at a store with your bare hands!"

"Did you really win first place at the national karate championship for two years in a row?"

"Are you an assassin?"

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

"Will you go out with me?"

Comments buzzed at them from everyone. One of the teachers asked Naruto if he did body guard duty on the side. Naruto basked in all the attention that it gave him. He loved feeling and playing the part of the cool hero.

Not to mention that for the first time in his life, other people thought he was as good as Sasuke at something. It made it worth it: like he was worth being Sasuke’s friend because he was the only one as cool as he was at fighting.

Unfortunately, Sasuke didn't know what to do with all the attention. He had never liked being noticed before. Even though people had always paid attention to him – when he was younger due to his family name, and then due to his orphan status – he'd never been very social. He hated large crowds of people that fawned over him.

Jealousy crept over Sasuke as he noticed that Naruto didn't seem at all fazed at the attention as he let two girls hang on either arm over at his locker. Sasuke slid out his mathematics book from his locker and put it in his bag in order to do his homework.

They had decided to pretend not to be best friends in order to pull off the stupid scheme that Naruto had concocted. But now, with the attention that everyone was bestowing on Naruto, a strange trickle of fear welled up within Sasuke. What if Naruto had planned the fight to get instant popularity? What if Naruto was looking for someone else to replace him as his best friend?

Sasuke slammed his locker shut at the stupid thought that had gone through his head. Naruto was always coming up with dim-witted ideas. It didn't mean he was pushing Sasuke away.

And Sasuke pointedly ignored Naruto, not even having to feign disliking him at that moment as he felt a strange swell of hatred swirl at his best friend for making him doubt the strongest bond he had.

Next Chapter: A New Battlefront

The next chapter is one of my favorites! Hope you liked this chapter and will enjoy the next one as well. ~ Jelp