Marked By Jutsu

Marked By Jutsu

Part V


Naruto

Waiting for half of the day was in the least, fucking annoying! I was so tired of being cooped up in a hallway waiting for the paper cut. I looked at my two companions. Neji was leaning against the wall scrawling on a notepad, so I decided to leave him alone. I gave Sasuke a look. He seemed to be asleep, b bet bet he was trying to discourage the female bands from bothering him since they were eyeing him like a nair air of shoes. I sighed.


"I need some fresh air." I stated before walking outside.


It was gorgeous outside. The sun was already sorta low in the sky so I could tell it was afternoon sometime. Umino-sensei had dropped us off here before classes and was going to come back when class was done. We were out in the middle of nowhere somewhere between Konoha and Sand. This was some old performance hall and looked really creepy. On one side there were lots of trees and on the other a barren road. I guess that made it easier to tell which dirrection Sand was in and which way Konoha was in. I looked down the road. Sand I heard was highly industrialized and hand not much in the way of trees. I guess since Konoha was backed up to a water source on one side we could be industrial without cutting down our trees. I moved some soil around with my foot until I felt eyes on me. Kyuubi started to growl again making my stomach hurt. I turned to the source of my unease.


That red-headed drummer was staring at me. His eyes narrowed as I turned to face him. I almost drowned in his cold green depths. He started toward me. I stepped back a bit, but Kyuubi's growling became more avid and my sides began to cramp up. I crunched up a bitsharsharp pains struck me in my sides.


"Stop it Kyuubi." I hissed while hitting my stomach. "You're hurting me." His growling softened a little. I could feel his annoyance.


He stopped in front of me bending down a little so that he could scrutinize my appearance. I lo up up at him. His appearance was haunting. His skin was cool ivory and untouched, his eyes piercing jade rimmed thickly with dark kohl, and his hair was deep red like the morning after a battle. He would almost be considered handsome if only his unnerving gaze wasn't so tense.


"He's calling out...." He reached his hand out toward my stomach as he said that. His voice was soft and kind of dead sounding.


My stomach burned as Kyuubi growled. Startled, I backed away. "Who are you? Knock it off. Stop being perverted."


"Shukaku knows he's there...."


Shukaku? What the hell was he talking about?! "Look I don't even know you. Stop messing around with me." I turned to leave.

"Gaara...." He said bluntly. "Sabaku no Gaara...."


I stopped and looked at him. "Gaara?" That name, I knew I'd heard it somewhere before. "Uzumaki Naruto." Oh man I just realized where I'd heard Gaara's name. He was an expert drummer for Sand. Nobody had beat him in competetion, and he was very competitive. I slapped my forehead and groaned. Fuck. "Not him..."


His eyes were watching my every move. It was creeping me out. "Are you afraid of me?" he almost seemed hurt when he said that. Almost....


He reached out toward me again and when I moved to knock his hand away I was met with sand. What? The sand swirled around my arm then fizzled and moved away. I could feel Kyuubi snarl and snap at the sand. I stumbled back as the pain from Kyuubi's annoyance was suddenly very intense. I'd never felt his rage that aroused before. He must have felat Iat I was in a threatening position. I fell to my knees holding my stomach. Gaara held his hand out sand swirling around it in a delicate helix. I looked at it for a minute. Nothing threatening, just sand. I mentally berated Kyuubi for making my stomach hurt. Dumb fox. I thought Gaara's little display was kinda cool.


"Heh, cool..." I grunted while taking the offered hand and trying to calm Kyuubi. Gaara's eyes widened as if he hadn't expected me to touch him. His hand slowly closed around mine as he pulled me up. "....Thanks...." I uttered before walking back into the building.

"Oi Naruto....They're about to post the results." I turned to find Umino-sensei standing there with some other teacher.


"Really?" I jumped up and down and then rushed to stand by the door.


Slowly one of the judges walked out a long sheet of paper in his hand. He took what seemed forever to tack the list up. The list was arranged in score order from least to greatest only the band names on the list were the bands moving on. I was very nervous now. My eyes scanned the list. Where was our name. As discouraged bands turned to leave I got closer and noticed our name second to last. That meant we got the second best score and we were advancing. I let out a whoop of unabashed joy. I turned to see Sasuke and Neji standing there. I jumped into the smirking Sasuke successfully surprsing him and making him blush then I moved and pounced on Neji almost baring him to the floor in my excitement. I didn't care that it was Neji and Sasuke I'd pounced on, I was happy. I was actually surprised when one of Neji's arms came up to return the action briefly, and then he set me down.

"Congratulations Naruto, but now you need to practice even harder. They'll be expecting flawless performances." Umino smiled kindly at me. I could tell he was proud.


As I turned back to my band I noticed Gaara standing there. I offered a small smile and then turned completely to face Sasuke and Neji. I felt Gaara's tense look and then it was gone. I could hear his band members praising themselves. Neji briefly outlined what he thought would be good for us to do. Sasuke didn't like listening to Neji, but he didn't disagree since the Hyuuga's opinions had proven to be the truth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The next day of school was back to being normal. Well not quite. Everyone had heard of our excursion and was dying to know. Especially Sasuke's fanclub. I walked into the room and saw the Uchiha in a clump of chatty girls. All of them were gossiping about how he had lied about being with me so he could surprise them with his rockstar status. God, but they were dense. Oh well. I was in such a good mood, that I decided to be leniant on him and keep up appearances.


"Sasuke-kun!" I called to him as I gave a small wave.


He almost glared, but then an almost grateful look appeared in his eye as he moved from the group of overly hormonal females. "Naru-chan...." he whispered while walking to me. "What took you so long?" His lips brushed close to my ear as he spoke to make it look like a greeting kiss, but really he'd done nothing. His fanclub sighed in disgust toward me.

I giggled and faked a blush. "I'm sorry I made you mad the other day Sasuke-kun, I won't do it again." I wrapped an arm around his neck and nuzzled.

His muscles tensed but he brought an arm up to rest on the back of my head almost harshly holding my head down. He was blushing brightly and his hand was shaking. I could hear his fanclub threatening me, they just didn't seem to get that Sasuke wanted nothing to do with them. I could tell he was beyond annoyed, so I did the unthinkable. I yanked his head down for a crushing kiss. His eyes widened in surprise and I felt his mouth "o" to say something, but I quickly diverted any response with a quick brush of my tongue.

"Sorry." I whispered almost silently against his lips.


I felt his hand tighten on the back of my head in response that he had heard my apology and suddenly his lips moved against mine. My mind jolted. He was kissing back. It's all an act it's all an act! I was screaming inside, but I didn't care. I was getting kissed back by Sasuke.


"Uzumaki! Uchiha! that behavior is not tolerated in this class room." We separated at the angry voice. "It's bad enough that there are teachers in the academy like that, now it's filtering to the students." The teacher gave me a meaningful glare.


All of the Uchiha fanclub started pointing at me and blaming me. I couldn't care less. Who wanted to spend the whole day cooped up with the those closed-minded PMS-ers? I was in an excellent mood anyway. The teacher ushered Sasuke to his seat and then pulled me out into the hall by my shirt collar.


"I do not accept this kind of behavior from anyone, and especially not you. Sasuke is a prize to my class and I'll not have you trying to corrupt him with your perverted ways."


I flicked at the hoop in my ear and looked bored. I'd heard similar lectures before. No different. "Whatever...." I said while starting toward the detention room. "Seeing as you're a teacher I'd suggest you get that rod out of your ass. It makes you disagreeable...." I muttered while smirking.


I walked into the room to find no Umino. Odd. Neji was sitting behind the desk. He normally wouldn't be there for another two hours when his classes were done. Neji saw me walk in but didn't move from the desk. Suddenly mental images of my dream came back and I had to fight down a blush. Neji looked so cool sitting there with his feet propped up on the desk, looking down at that scroll, with long strands of ebon hair falling across his face.

"Iruka-chan?" A lazy voice asked from the hall. It was the same teacher from yesterday.


"He's not here today Hatake-sensei." Neji didn't even look up from his book. "He got suckered into substituting for an elementary class."


"Oh..." the grey -haired professor sounded slightly disappointed even if his face didn't betray his feelings. His coal eyes turned to me. "Congratulations on your advancement." With that said he was gone.


I watched Neji for a moment then sat in a chair in front of the desk. "Who is that?" I asked.

"That's Hatake- sensei. He's an upper class teacher." Neji looked up at me. "He's Umino-sensei's....stupid pervert....." He drew off.


Realization dawned on me. "Oh so that's why you are never affected when Ji-san makes perverted remarks." I gave him a toothy grin.


Neji leaned forward moving him legs off the desk and looking me directly in the eyes. His opal eyes were so piercing as if they saw right through me. I blushed at his intense gaze. His lips were so close to my own I could feel his warm breath on my cheek.


"Is that such a bad thing Uzumaki-kun?" he whispered in a lust filled voice.


"Oi Naruto..." Neji was looking at me with a slightly worried expression.


I blinked a few times. Damn. It was all just another of those elaborate visions that was bound to get me in trouble sooner or later. "Sorry Neji-kun. I just spaced out. Had too much energy last night and couldn't sleep." I lied.

"Your book ke's r's remarks don't faze me because, well why deny what is true? He is merely hinting that you are cute enough to be hit on by a gay man. He knows that I'm not straight, so he assumes."

"What? You're....?" my god the world was good. " I didn't know anyone else in Konoha was....wait, you think I'm cute?"


Neji smirked. "No I think you're bratty, but you've got a good voice." He propped his legs back up on the desk. "Besides, you're way to young for me."


"Hey! I'm not bratty! And, and you're only four years older than me!" I pointed at him accusingly. "Don't make yourself out to be so high and mighty." I turned to face the window pouting.


I heard movement behind me, and then I felt the weight of toned arms on my shoulders and the brush of silky hair against my cheeks. I looked up slightly noticing Neji leaning over the back of the chair and giving me one of those self sufficient smirks Sasuke always gave me.


"Oh but I am, little Naru. I'm sure you see that being as I am your teacher." He smirked. I was entranced by the movement of his pale full lips. "But you're a good student, so that makes me a good teacher." His hand traced over my lips for a fleeting moment. "Student teacher relationships never work, so I suggest you get over your little crush." He stated firmly his face going back to it's normal mask.


My face felke fke freshly erupted lava. I had just seen a side of Neji I had only dreamed he had. I don't think that was going to help my crush any, especially since we had practice again tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I briefly wondered why we always had practice in my house, well appartment. I supposed after a while that neither family would agree to having me in their houses with their sons. Especially since I had the feeling that my teacher had warned parents of my preferences concerning dating. Frankly I hated dates. I didn't have any money to spend on people, and me being hormonal would rather get to the chase. I know that sounds bad. It's Kyuubi's fault. He has the damn libido of a mink. I sighed as I listened to Neji and Sasuke tune up their instruments. My living space was now reduced because of amps and monitors taking up any extra area. Sasuke figured that it was pointless to keep moving the bac back and forth when we did all our practicing in my den.


"Naruto, you ready?" Neji asked me while pulling his hair into a ponytail on top of his head.


God he was hot. His little "attack" earlier in the week had done anything but make my crush wane. If anything it made it more prominent. Neji had a very sideways way of saying things. He was good at hiding aspects of a conversation without the other person noticing, unless of course it was Sasuke. I swear that guy had the intuition of a mind reader. I had been contemplating what I'd do to get the truth out of him. I'd noticed his intense gazes when he talked to me. I'm almost sure that there was something more than tolerance there. I was so distracted with my plan that I screwed up more at practice than I had in a long time. Even Sasuke seemed a little concerned seeing as the competition was a week away.


We ended practice early on account of me being "tired". Sasuke like always left abruptly leaving me alone with Neji. Neji was still sitting on the stool, his bass was already neatly put away though. He was just making some notes in his notepad. I felt Kyuubi's burn on my stomach, his libido was always in full force during the spring which meant that I got to have even more hormone issues. Maybe that was why I chose this method of getting my answer.


"Neji... " I approached him my cheeks aflame.


He looked up for a moment. "Yes?"


"I'm sorry....." I whispered before throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him.

I felt his muscles tense up........Oh man........

A/n: Thanks for all the reviews guys. You really rock. Sorry if everything seems out of character here. I'm trying to build up the drama for the next part.

so to my AFNs:


Rune- I'm so glad you won't leave. My fic was surprised to get glomped but it smiles happily. Yeah I love Ji-san too. Perverts are fun to write.

Vampia Zee- yes Naru's dream did rock! I kept envisioning it while I was writing. Let me tell you.....UMPH! *gets tackled* O_o


dragonkitty- aw thanks. I always approve of healthy addictions. More art is posted now, I think at least.


Aw only three? Oh well! You guys get yaoi cookies!! I wanna ROCKS. Mune ni ROCKS!