Freshmen Chronicles

Chapter 4


I can't believe that I made it here in just 24 minutes. I'm quite sure that I parked in two parking spots, maybe even three, but who cares. There's free food on the line.


"Hi, I'm supposed to be meeting some friends here. I believe that they're sitting in the back," I say as politely and as cordially as I can. The host, who's a balding, painfully thin, middle-aged man takes one look at my appearance, and then turns his nose up, before walking towards the back of the restaurant without saying a word. Am I supposed to just stand here, or did he want me to follow? Maybe he's going to confirm that I actually know somebody in his precious restaurant. Well, fuck him! I know that I'm not looking my best right now, but at least I have all of my hair. Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze let's no one put him on the back burner on any day; I'm seating myself.


"Hey guys, what's up?" I greet as I walk past the stuttering baldy, and grab a chair. Before my ass can even hit the seat, Kiba and Sakura are yelling at the top of their lungs about starvation, inconsiderateness, and ass kicking, while Deidara is just holding up his iPhone that's currently in stopwatch mode.


"It's exactly 5 minutes and 52 seconds past 6:30pm. You owe me $5.87, hm," he says while holding out his hand. Even though I was expecting it, I quickly scramble in panic for an excuse.


"It's all that bald bastard's fault. I was here ages ago, but he wouldn't let me come back here. You're the one that picked a restaurant with shoddy service. If anything, you should be paying me," I yell while wildly gesturing at the retreating host's back. I see him pause and tremble in anger, but my main concern is getting out of paying Deidara. Besides, it's not like I'm telling a total lie.


"Cut your bullshit, Naruto. If you had gotten here 36, now 37 minutes ago like the rest of us, you wouldn't have had to deal with that. $5.87," he aims and shoots me down coolly, and the only thing that's betraying his calmness is the slight glare he's giving. Fuck it, I give up and give him the stupid cash, because my stomach is trying to eat itself, and Sakura looks downright monstrous at this point. I'll like to keep my balls in tact a little longer.


"I see that your sixth party has finally arrived. What can I get for you, sir?" A very pretty and shapely waitress asks, and Kiba is practically slobbering all over the table. Her nametag says Jeannie. I quickly look over the menu, and eye several items, before turning back around.


"I'll have the Bistecca alla Fiorentina with penne pasta and arrabbiata sauce. Oh, I'll also like to try the cazzilli and the bruschetta. Oh yeah, a side garden salad would be good, too; I gotta eat my veggies. Oh oh, bring out an order of zeppoli, too. I like to have my dessert on hand so that I can hurry up and make it fit," I say to the now wide-eyed waitress who just scribbles and nods. She then quickly heads through the red double doors behind us, and I look after her. However, I finally realize that something is just not right. I can feel the heat on the back of my neck like a laser beam, and considering my present company, I somehow royally fucked up just now.


"Naruto, you jackass! We ordered almost a half of an hour ago, and then you come in here and order all of that shit! Now, we're going to have to wait even longer," I feel more so than hear Sakura shout. The second I turn around, I'm hit with a large, pink, rhinestone-studded handbag, and Kiba is standing and yelling something about taking it outside, while I'm just trying to stop my head from spinning.


"You two might as well calm down, because beating the shit out of him is not going to make our food come any faster. Besides, we've waited all of this time, and no one has keeled over; I doubt 20 more minutes will change that," Shikamaru states with boredom. I can practically see the debate taking place on Kiba and Sakura's face, to beat ass or not to beat ass. Finally, after shooting me twin glares, hell duo release me.


"Next time show up on time, idiot," Sakura throws in with a pout as she sits down, and I can't help but to smile.


"Yeah, but you love this idiot," I say out of habit, causing her to blush and look away. It's hard to believe it's been 10 months since we called it quits. I pined over her ever since she became Ino's best friend in second grade, and finally after chasing her for nine years, I got to call her my girlfriend, and even lost my virginity to her. But, even though we got along great, and lasted almost two years, I knew that we were better off as friends, and told her as much. I didn't want her settling for me just because I treated her nice and was convenient. I don't doubt that she loved me, but sometimes you just get the feeling that you're holding somebody back, and I would rather kill myself than do that to Sakura. Admitting that I wasn't the one to her, and to myself, was by far the hardest thing I've ever had to do, especially when she started crying. But, seeing the chemistry between her and Shikamaru makes me glad that I was able to man up, even they're both too stubborn to pull their heads out of their asses and see it.


It's no secret that Sakura's a know-it-all, and can make you feel like the dumbest motherfucker alive. But, Shikamaru doesn't have to worry about that, because he's the only one I know that's actually smarter than she is. His laid-back attitude also balances out her anger, whereas I seem to bring it out more. More importantly, I noticed them checking each other out and spending more time together a few months ago even though they both adamantly say it's all in my head. Whatever, I know attraction when I see it, and I've told them countless times that I'm cool with it, so it's up to them if they want to make it happen.


"Deidara tells me you have the roommate from hell," Kiba turns to me and states now that he's finally deemed me worthy of his attention. I can feel the frown and grimace on my face just thinking about Sasuke; luckily, Dei cuts in.


"That dipshit is the reason my wallet is being emptied as we speak, so I'll rather not discuss him. How was the orientation?" He asks, and my frown is immediately highlighted by a full-blown growl.


"It was pure ass! That Asuma bastard had a rule for every damn thing. You can't drink, you can't party, you can't stay out late; hell, I was waiting for him to tell me that I can't breathe!" I vent, and everyone is silent, deathly silent. Kiba has a look of pleasured awe and amazement, Ino looks like the cat that ate the canary, Sakura is purposely not meeting my gaze, Shika looks annoyed, and Dei has the Mona Lisa smirk. Alright, what the hell is going on?


"Spill it," I say as I slowly look at each one of my friends. Somehow, I know that my current state of hell is their doing, but they're taking forever to admit it.


"I can't believe he did it. That crazy bastard actually followed through with all of his threats," Kiba finally says as he tries to hide a laugh behind a cough. Ino's grin is practically splitting her face now.


"Of course he did, we gave that man hell! I once caught him smoking two cigarettes at the same time," she laughs, before Shika adds his two cents.


"You should have seen him when Kiba set our dorm room on fire," he says, and I quickly cut in before I get any more confused, or somebody else starts talking.


"Whoa, whoa, what?" I ask, and the whole table erupts. Shika is the first one to settle down, so he quickly fills me in.


"Somehow, this moron scorched over 60 percent of our room trying to boil water on a hotplate for cup ramen," he informs, and for a few seconds, I can only gawk at Kiba in amusement.


"Why the hell didn't you use the microwave?" I ask, but Shikamaru doesn't let him answer.


"He claims that it doesn't taste the same."


At this, the table erupts again, and half of the restaurant is now staring at us. I can barely speak I'm laughing so hard.


"Dude, it's fucking boiled water; what do you mean it doesn't taste the same? How the hell do you screw up cup ramen? I've been making that shit since I was three!" I finally manage to get out, and everyone laughs harder. Kiba is sputtering in his defense, but he's just digging a bigger whole for himself. It's hard to believe that he's a computer programming genius.


While everyone else was growing up on Gameboy and Sony PlayStation, Kiba was hooking us up with games that he had created himself. All you had to do was give him the idea, and within a few months, there'd be a game tailored to whatever you had asked for. If you wanted Call of Duty meets Halo, Mario style, no problem. We didn't think anything was strange about this until he hacked into his dead-beat dad's savings account, and re-wired it into his mom's checking.


Funnily, he originally had no desire to be a programmer. He wanted to be a vet like his older sister, but his grades were only slightly better than mine, so almost every vet school in the country turned him down. Luckily, my uncle and I were able to talk him into going to college to get professional training in programming. He only agreed after he was guaranteed a job. But, after hearing about the incident with the ramen, I wonder if we're in over our heads.


"Fuck all of you guys!" Kiba shouts, before rounding onto Sakura.


"At least I didn't get so drunk that I didn't realize I was stark naked and hitting on Asuma!"


Instantly, the entire table is wide-eyed and silent, waiting to see how Sakura reacts. This can go very bad, very fast, and I'm especially interest in this explanation.


"Oh, shut up. I was depressed over breaking up with my boyfriend. Besides, it's Deidara's fault for supplying all of that alcohol to a bunch of minors," she replies, and I can't help but to flinch when she mentions the cause of the escapade. Everyone else just lets out a collective sigh, but Dei isn't one to let anyone place blame on him.


"Don't fault me, because you can't hold your liquor. Everyone has free will, and technically, I didn't supply you with anything, my connections did, hm. I was still a minor myself," he defends, and then slyly takes a long glance at Ino, before smirking at Sakura.


"If I remember correctly, the princess requested it for her party," he adds, and Ino's laughter dies in her throat.


"Deidara! Some brother you are, throwing me under the bus to get the heat off yourself. I'm not taking the blame for that. That party was strictly to celebrate Kiba hooking everybody up with straight As," she responds, while turning her nose up. Once again, all eyes are on Kiba, but this time he doesn't look the least bit ashamed.


"That bitch Dr. Patterson had it coming. I was one point, one fucking point away from getting a B-, and she wouldn't let me slide. So, I was just going to bump up my C+, but then I remembered how she rode me all semester, and gave myself an A. I liked how good it looked, so I changed the rest of them, too. I only gave these bastards the hookup so that they wouldn't snitch," he says with his arms folded, daring anyone to say he was wrong. I was going to let it go, but something is not adding up.


"Wait a minute; if there is a rule about cheating, you had to have been caught, right?" I ask, and Kiba just grumbles a sour yeah.


"He only got caught, because he gave Dr. Patterson the finger in the hallway the following semester. That prompted her to recheck his grades to make sure she didn't give him any leniency. Needless to say he got reported, and the only reason he didn't get kicked out was because he agreed to change everyone's grades back to normal, and to work for free in the school's IT security office for the rest of the time that he's here," Shikamaru expands for him. Several waitresses carrying plates upon plates to our table ends the conversation. For almost half of an hour all I hear is silverware clinging against porcelain.


"Would anyone like to order dessert?" Jeannie asks and I almost throw-up at the thought of more food. Looking around the table, almost everyone seems to be on the verge of belching up half chewed food, but Ino seems game.


"Actually, could you bring me a piece of tiramisu, please?" She orders, and Jeannie flashes a smile before walking off again. I look around and see that no one appears to be in a rush to leave, so Ino should be able to take her time. But, then again, Sakura has that look in her eye, and judging by how all of the guys magically wound up on the same side of the table as me, they noticed it, too.


"Hey pig, you might want to lay off the dessert, considering those seven pounds you gained last year. You wouldn't want to get fat now, would you?" Sakura asks while poking Ino in the stomach. Ino is quick to shield her midsection, but she is not shielding her anger.


"Oh, fuck off, Sakura! You've gained weight, too. It just isn't as noticeable, because it all went to your damn forehead," she says while poking said forehead. Sakura nods at her jab approvingly, before following with one of her own.


"Okay, Ino, okay. My forehead may be large, but at least I didn't go up a whole jean size," she declares, and it must have stung, because Ino's only response is her eyes widening. Once I see her tugging at the sides of her shirt uncomfortably, I decide that it's time to put their verbal spar to rest, but Dei beats me to it.


"Don't let her get to you, sis; she's just jealous. Even if you gain seventy pounds, you'll still be beautiful, because of who you're related to. You know how we Yamanaka do," he says, and then winks which causes Ino to giggle. Sakura just sticks out her tongue at Dei, which causes her and Ino to burst out laughing. They have a brutal, semi-volatile friendship, but they love each other dearly. They just have a hell of a way of showing it.


"Here's your tiramisu, mam," Jeannie says as she hands Ino the small plate. Without saying a word, she places our individual tabs in front of us, and then heads over to another table. I look at the little white slip, and my eyes feel burnt when they see that my meal is almost fifty dollars. I quickly pass it to Deidara; that's his wallet's problem, not mine. Gama is full, I'm full; maybe this day won't end so badly after all.


"You know, I don't really want to go home and go to sleep on a full stomach. Let's go to that new club on Crabtree Avenue by S 21st Street," Sakura suggests after eating half of Ino's tiramisu. Everybody is smiling and nodding, but I'm just pissed off.


"Aww, no fair! You guys know that I'm not old enough to get in, and I'll be damned if I have to put up with Sasuke bastard while you guys club," I state, but no one seems moved. Damn.


"Shika and I went through the same thing last year, but don't worry. Your 18th birthday will be here in a few weeks, and we'll take you to all of the hot spots," Ino says dismissively, and then goes back to planning the rest of their night. It's times like these that I'm forced to realize that these are Ino's friends. Yeah, we're all really close, but they went to school together. I was just her little brother that always tagged along. It doesn't help that my birthday is so late in the year. Damn, I guess I will be hanging with Sasuke.


"So, you never did tell us about that roommate of yours. Is he cute?" Ino asks about the current subject of my thoughts. I saw the put out look she had when Dei changed the subject earlier, so I know that there is no escaping it now.


"Why the hell are you asking me if he's cute? How the fuck would I know? I wasn't checking him out. All I can tell you is that the guy's a douche, and so is his father. First they acted as though I wasn't worthy of breathing the same air as them, then I mentioned Uncle Inoichi's company, and the dad started acting like I was his adopted son. Then, I don't know what the fuck happened, but it wasn't pretty. I've never seen a dad treat his son like that in real life, made me feel bad for the bastard. But, whatever, he's decided that he hates my guts, and I'm not too fond of him either," I rattle off, and everyone looks a little disturbed, except for Shika. He just has a look of contemplation.


"I'm glad my parents decided to move here," he finally says after several minutes. That draws everyone's attention, because Shika is the only one of us that's completely Japanese. He spent all of his elementary years in Japan, not having moved to America until the seventh grade.


"Over here, you're encouraged to be yourself, to be an individual. However, back there it's all about being one part of the whole. If you don't conform, you're ostracized for it. Your parents, peers and all of society decide what's best for you, and the more money you're born into, the less choice you have in the matter. You just do what you're told until you have kids of your own. Then, you can dictate their lives, and live vicariously through them, perpetuating the cycle. No, I am glad that I was not born an Uchiha. I do not envy Uchiha Sasuke at all," he concludes, and I cannot tell whether he was talking to us, or just thinking aloud.


When Shika first moved here, he was extremely withdrawn. He would often hang out by himself watching clouds without talking to anybody. Ino and I kept pestering him until finally he started opening up to us. Over time, we learned that he was just as much of a genius here as he was in Japan, but his poor work ethic didn't sit well with the Japanese. He would seemingly get the top score without even trying, and it pissed all of the other kids off, so they made him an outcast. He didn't play any sports, and wasn't a part of any clubs, so he was a waste of genetics in their opinion. They didn't care that he spoke five languages, fluently, and was a brilliant strategist. He didn't fit their mold, so he suffered for it.


Well, I'm glad that they didn't want him, because now we have him. For the past three years, he has been pretty much a jack-of-all-trades for Yamanaka Enterprise, and more importantly, he has been one of my closest friends for the last seven years. Therefore, they can put that in their pipes and smoke it. Now, I see why Sasuke is such a jackass.


"Let's get out of here. You guys have clubbing to do, and I have a bastard to deal with," I say, breaking everyone out of their trance. My thoughts are still elsewhere, but seeing two white slips on my windshield wiper puts an end to that.


"Son of a bitch!" I yell as I realize I was ticketed twice, one for taking up two parking spaces, and one for parking in a handicap space. I look at the lines, and sure enough, the left lines are blue, while the right lines are yellow. A quick glance shows that I owe 75 dollars. I guess I didn't get a free meal after all. Fuck it, I'm tired, and am ready to relax. I'll think about this shit tomorrow.


'Why is it so dark in there? Maybe he's gone,' I think as I look at my dorm window from outside. I don't really care either way at this point, so I just concern myself with getting everything important out of my car, and heading inside.


"Uhnnn," I hear the minute I turn the light on. Of course, my eyes follow the sound, and I see Sasuke sleeping in his bed with a slight frown on his face. Then, like magic, it's gone, and he's out cold. But, now I can't stop staring at him. He looks so young. I mean really young, like 12-years-old young. If I hadn't have met him earlier, I would have sworn that he was my roommate's little brother or something. It doesn't help that he's sleeping under a velour, baby blue blanket with fringes on it. It seems as though he tried to hide it under a darker, navy blue quilt, but him moving around exposed it.


Damn, I can't really rag on him for it, because I still sleep with my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle nightlight. So, I quickly turn off the light, strip down to my boxers, and then plug in Mike. It's been a long day, and I need to be fresh and ready to deal with the bastardly bright and early in the morning. It's only been a day, and classes don't start until next Monday. Something tells me I have a hell of a week ahead of me.


Author's Note 2: Unlike original works where you can take as long as you want to develop a character, because no one has any expectations of them, your take on the characters in fanfiction need to be done immediately so that everyone is one the same page. That's why I decided to slow Naruto's first day of college down to a snail's pace. Now, things are about to be moving. You've been warned!