Like Ninja Fighters

Originally beta’d by Master of the Rebels back on August 16th. Since then I’ve added stuff that she hasn’t looked over yet.

And yes, this is early because I’ll be away this weekend. Enjoy!


Like Ninja Fighters

Chapter 5: A New Battlefront

Freshman Year

The instant popularity that came with Naruto and Sasuke's fight only increased in the weeks to come.

Naruto had made friends with basically anyone that talked with him. He enjoyed spending time with people other than Sasuke. While he loved to hang out with Sasuke, spending time with them made him feel important and special somehow. And in a strange way, comparing these new relationships with the one he had with Sasuke actually increased how much he valued his friendship with Sasuke.

There was no one in the world that could replace how close he and Sasuke were. Not to mention, Naruto had always worried about how closed off Sasuke acted. Forcing him to meet new people would be good for him, Naruto was sure of it.

In fact, it was the first time that Sasuke had finally made some new friends.

Sort of.

He had been invited to what was clearly a high-society-type table at lunch, consisting of people from wealthy and fairly well-known families.

Apparently, even though his family was dead, the Uchiha Company was still doing well, and several of the families of people at this particular high-school knew his name. Kakashi had once told both him and Naruto that their families had a large amount of savings for them if they ever needed it. Sasuke never really questioned it before, though now he wondered how much a “large amount” was. From the reception at the table, the family company was doing extremely well. And while Sasuke didn’t really give a damn about the status, it seemed important to these students at least. While everyone else at the table had told him what company they had come from, and what the businesses entailed, Sasuke frankly didn't care.

It was just a place to sit where no one really bothered him. A quiet table.

To his right sat sophomore Hyuuga Neji. Next to him sat another sophomore named Gaara. A surname had been provided, but Sasuke didn't remember it. In fact, he forgot a lot of the surnames at his table. Next to Gaara was a junior he thought might have been named Juugo. Another junior, Kimimaro, was on Juugo’s other side. A senior boy who he had initially mistaken as a girl, named Haku, sat next to him. Fellow freshmen Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji filled the rest of the seats at the eight-seater table. He thought Shikamaru’s family owned a computer software company while Chouji’s family owned a chain of well known bakeries. He only remembered their family companies because they were in his grade.

They were all quiet souls: save for Chouji who sometimes munched a little loudly on his food (but who was otherwise not really talkative). The way he shoveled food into his mouth reminded Sasuke of Naruto.

The eight boys filled all the seats on their exclusive table, and it was clear that no visitors were readily welcomed.

Sasuke looked around him, feeling lonely, but grateful to be able to sit somewhere where people didn't pester him about his fighting skills. Not to mention only two days ago, the school had collectively taken a national exam, and Sasuke had scored perfectly along with only a few other students in his grade. People had since started remarking about his impressive academic abilities along with his fighting skills.

If Naruto had shared his lunch (Sasuke had second lunch and Naruto third), he would have given up this stupid façade just to be able to sit with his best friend.

There didn't seem to be any bullies in this school: at least there weren’t any that Sasuke had seen. Idiots who said cruel things, yes, bullies, no.

"Sasuke-kun!" a girl simpered, as she hovered unwelcome over the table, interrupting Sasuke's quiet bubble. He glared up at her, hoping she would go away. He didn't prompt her to continue talking, but he didn't need to. She was one of those apparent idiots who didn’t realize her presence was not welcome, and she was well known for loving to say cruel things about anyone and everyone. Again, this school didn’t seem to have bullies, but there were a lot of kids with sharp and hurtful tongues. She was one of them.

"I heard Naruto-kun called you a pansy, and that he would have beaten you up if those administrators hadn't stopped you! You’re not going to let him get away with that, are you?" she baited, playing with the cell phone in her hand.

Sasuke looked nonplussed.

"Are you trying to start a fight between the two? Throwing insults of what you supposedly heard back and forth in order to be an instigator; it's pathetic," Neji said, putting the girl down.

"Whatever happened between the two seems over. Why does everyone have to keep talking about it?" Gaara said, crossing his arms, also putting the girl’s enthusiasm at their rivalry down.

"It was, I mean – I just wanted Sasuke-kun to know that Naruto-kun was making fun of him-"

"If Uzumaki did say such things, it's most likely because he can't fight and was only able to taunt Sasuke with words," Shikamaru said wisely. Sasuke thought that would be true in most cases, but as he knew that Naruto could fight, he didn’t bother to give a sign of agreement.

"I-" the girl looked at a loss of what to say, and she headed off. Sasuke wasn't sure if he should feel bad for the girl or not. He decided on not as she was normally very spiteful and had tried to get him to fight Naruto, even if what she said was probably true.

Naruto most likely had called him a pansy. After all, Sasuke had agreed to let him.

Just that morning Naruto asked if he could insult Sasuke because people were starting to wonder why he hadn't started another fight with him yet. Naruto said that he wanted to look cool by not backing down if people tried to press him about getting into another fight with Sasuke. Even so, Naruto’s loyalty to Sasuke made it hard for him to insult him without permission. (Insulting Sasuke to his face didn’t count; those insults came easily and often.)

Sasuke had agreed for Naruto to call him a pansy because really, it was a rather pathetic and clearly not badass thing to say. He thought it was rather funny at the time: one, because that was the best insult that Naruto had seemed to come up with, and two, because Naruto had actually asked permission to insult Sasuke in front of others. Sure they insulted each other a lot, but they never knowingly insulted the other to anyone else.

Now, having heard it from that girl's lips, it wasn't so funny.

It wasn’t funny in the least, especially since the girl coming to him forcibly reminded Sasuke of another incident from years before.

One of Itachi’s female friends once told Sasuke that Itachi thought he was a pansy. The memory had been one he hadn’t thought about, but now that it had surfaced, other memories he didn’t want to think about came hurtling upon him. Sasuke began to rub the scar Itachi had given him on the back of his neck before he realized what he was doing. He fisted his hands and laid them on his lap.

"What was that fight about between you and Uzumaki?" Neji inquired curiously. Sasuke shrugged, trying to not think about Itachi as he clenched and unclenched his fists underneath the table.

"He just rubs me the wrong way," Sasuke said, and amongst this particular group, he was grateful that that was all he had to say.

Meanwhile, as Sasuke sat eating lunch, Naruto was going a bit overboard insulting Sasuke in his class.

He was in the middle of Math and for once had actually finished his classwork early. Someone had made a snide remark that maybe Sasuke had knocked all his mathematic abilities out of his head which was why he was such a poor student, and maybe he was finally getting some of his brains back now that he’d had time to heal.

The instigator then added that Sasuke was a pretty awesome student academically, and that even if Naruto could best him at a fight, Naruto was no match for his brains.

Naruto didn't take too kindly to this.

One of the reasons Naruto had started the charade in the first place was because Sasuke was always put in the better academic classes. Naruto, try as he might, never came close to being in the same class.

It hurt to know that his own lack of intellectual abilities kept him from being with Sasuke during school. The façade, as stupid as it was, had made him feel better in a weird way by pretending that he and Sasuke weren’t supposed to be in the same class. In a strange way, it made it okay that Sasuke was smarter.

Instead of beating the kid up for what he said though, Naruto started bad mouthing Sasuke. He had always known Sasuke was better academically than him, but it still stung for someone else to point out what he already knew.

A girl behind him heard what he said about Sasuke and quickly texted one of her friends that had the same lunch as their beloved Sasuke-kun.

For the rest of the period, Naruto bad mouthed Sasuke, getting out his frustration that Sasuke would always be smarter than him, even though he had tried so hard to get in the same class as Sasuke. Putting Sasuke down actually made Naruto feel even worse rather than better about himself. He knew it was his own inability that kept them from being together. Sasuke hadn’t done anything wrong.

By the time the bell rang for Naruto to go to his lunch period, and Sasuke to leave lunch and head to his next class, both were thinking less than friendly thoughts of the other. Naruto was feeling trumped by Sasuke, and Sasuke was feeling pushed to the side.

It therefore didn't bode well when Sasuke and Naruto actually bumped into each other as Sasuke headed out of the cafeteria as Naruto walked in.

Naruto glared at Sasuke, feeling petty because he knew that Sasuke didn't know what he'd done other than be his usual brilliant self. The look that Naruto gave Sasuke: one of true loathing – even if only a little bit – pushed Sasuke over the edge.

"What's your problem, dumbass?" Sasuke asked, mad that Naruto was looking at him like that, sick and tired of their charade and how Naruto seemed to pull it off effortlessly.

"Me?" Naruto demanded, rattled that Sasuke had called him dumb. "You're a loser! And an asshole!"

Sasuke's frustration of going through this stupid façade by pretending not to be Naruto's friend, worrying why Naruto was pushing him away, broke free at the anger in Naruto’s words.

All the years of Sasuke always coming in first academically and others always putting it in his face that he would never best Sasuke in that arena likewise got to Naruto.

Sasuke and Naruto literally bashed knuckles as they simultaneously punched out to hit the other.

"FIGHT!" Someone screamed enthusiastically, as a crowd quickly swarmed around them. Sasuke idly noticed how his lunchtime "friends" were standing toward one end of the circle that had gathered around them, curious as to what was going on, and clearly not going to stop their fight.

It only took half a moment to register this as Naruto used Sasuke's distraction as he dropped to his hands and swiped his leg behind Sasuke's knees, knocking him down.

Sasuke allowed the momentum of his fall to help him as he tumbled, bending in half backward on the way down. He caught himself on his hands before he pushed off the ground, completing the action of a back flip. He put his feet in a balancing stance, his hands already in a block position as he anticipated Naruto's move, blocking the attack to his torso.

When Naruto used his other fist to punch at Sasuke, his supposedly best friend gripped his forearm, blocking the attack and twisted Naruto's arm to the side.

Letting out a curse, Naruto put his free hand on the grip on his arm and used the force of pushing off against the hold to twist his body around. The twisting motion dislodged Sasuke's grip, and Sasuke stumbled backward slightly as Naruto put distance between the two.

Naruto rubbed his arm where Sasuke had twisted him and shook it out before jabbing at Sasuke's side.

Not having gotten good footing yet, Sasuke stumbled again, falling heavily into Naruto who took the brunt of their fall, not having expected Sasuke to fall forward on top of him.

Choruses of "Fight! Fight! Fight!" echoed all around them as people cheered both of them on, only a few telling them to break it up. Those voices got quickly drowned out by the captivated, rowdy high-school audience.

Sasuke jabbed his elbow down onto Naruto’s chest, doubly knocking the wind out of him from both the fall and his hit.

Naruto coughed in pain even as he smashed his hand up into Sasuke's face.

Sasuke stumbled backward as the pain in his face made him see stars, even as blood began to gush from his nose. Naruto coughed as he wrapped an arm around his torso, but stumbled to get to his feet. Sasuke wiped the blood on the back of his hand, and he balled the bloodied hand into a fist just as Naruto did the same.

Sasuke went high as Naruto went low, Sasuke bashing his fist into the side of Naruto's nose as Naruto ground his fist into Sasuke's ribs. They both landed heavily on the ground.

A shrill whistle startled them as the Gym teacher, Maito-sensei, and the wood shop teacher, Yamato-sensei, broke through the group of students around them and pulled them each to their feet. They yelled at the crowd to break up before Maito-sensei grabbed Sasuke and Yamato-sensei grabbed Naruto, marching the two to the principal's office.

Naruto and Sasuke looked ahead stubbornly, both refusing to look at each other, feeling betrayed and hurt at how all out the other had fought.

"You two, again?" Principal Sarutobi demanded as Maito-sensei and Yamato-sensei briefly explained what had happened before going back to teach their respective classes.

"Well?" Sarutobi demanded as both teens seethed.

Neither said anything, and the principal made a noise of disgust before the nurse came in, tending to the two boys while Sarutobi called Kakashi to come pick them up. They were both suspended for three days.

Initially, Kakashi was beyond pissed when he saw that his two adopted sons had gotten into another fight. Yet his anger faded when he saw that they were both genuinely mad at each other. He’d never seen them mad at each other except for the very first time that they had met.

He'd never had to handle them at odds before. Instead of reaming them out like he had last time, he let the awkward silence fill the car.

The only reaction other than pissed off at the world that Kakashi was able to pull from them was when he headed into a parking lot in the middle of the new town they lived in.

"Why're we here? And, uh, where’s here?" Naruto asked, confused.

"It's the doctor's office. The school nurse said you both may have broken noses, but are very lucky that you didn't crack each others' ribs. You have put thirty-five people in the hospital. You must both realize that you're skilled enough to kill when not thinking about it. Do you know how badly you could have hurt each other?" Kakashi asked mildly.

"Naruto doesn't care who he hurts, so why should I?" Sasuke asked, acting and feeling too hurt to care that he was being petty.

"Of course Sasuke knows he could have hurt me. He's a genius who knows fucking everything, isn't he?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms away from Sasuke.

Kakashi sighed and scratched his head in confusion. He'd almost wished he’d had this problem before so he had some experience on how to handle it. He was also under the impression that boys fought out their differences, and once the fight was over, everything was back to normal again.

They were thankfully in and out of the doctor's office fairly quickly – no broken noses or ribs – but they were to ice their hurt areas and take some over the counter pain meds. Kakashi knew they had a high tolerance for pain and expected neither to bother taking care of themselves.

If they were on good terms, he would actually have expected them to spar later that night just to prove how “tough” they were.

Upon returning home, Kakashi was unsurprised to find that Naruto and Sasuke retired themselves to their rooms. After they had marched up the steps, both slamming their doors did Kakashi finally say jokingly to himself: "Both of you go to your rooms. No videogames tonight," he murmured sardonically, looking at the only videogame console located on the first floor.

For the first time Sasuke and Naruto were grateful that they no longer shared a room and instead had rooms across the hall.

Later that night, Sasuke and Naruto seethed at each other as they both came out of their rooms at the same time to take a shower.

Neither moved down the hall toward the bathroom.

"What was the glare for?" Sasuke asked, trying to sound angry, instead failing as he couldn’t manage to keep the hurt out of his voice. Naruto grimaced and felt guilty at how betrayed Sasuke sounded.

"You're smarter than I am," Naruto admitted grudgingly.

"Obviously, but that doesn't explain the glare," Sasuke bit out. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"You don't have to be a bastard about it! Someone made fun of me because I got done early in math, and the guy said maybe you had addled my brains and they were finally coming back. You're better than me at that kind of stuff, I know that, okay? Not everyone can be as smart as you when the rest of us have to work our asses off!" Naruto yelled at him.

Sasuke was honestly surprised. He knew that Naruto often mentioned how Sasuke was always in higher classes than him, but he’d never seemed so bitter about it before.

"And I heard you made it into that smart and wealthy table at your lunch! So I'm sure you feel proud of all that, right? That's why I'm such a dumbass?" Naruto demanded, angrily.

"I said that because someone said you called me a pansy-"

"I TOLD you I was going to say that you-" Naruto started in incredulous.

"And it hurt."

Naruto's words stopped dead.

"I think it was something my brother called me once, but it was one of his friends who told me," Sasuke said, looking off to the side, and Naruto looked at Sasuke in shock. Sasuke rarely talked about his brother. "It...it just hurt knowing you said it and someone else repeated it to me. Even if I knew you didn't mean it, it still hurt for some reason that the same thing had happened with Itachi."

Sasuke’s hand reached up and began playing with his scar again. Gently, Naruto reached out his hand and grasped Sasuke’s wrist, tugging it away. Naruto gave Sasuke’s wrist a reassuring squeeze before dropping his hand down.

"You're a bastard, not a pansy," Naruto said, grinning slightly. Sasuke snorted.

They shared a comforting half-smile that let them know everything was okay again. When the moment of relief passed, they both remembered what they were doing in the hall in the first place, holding their shower stuff.

The two of them both eyed the door to the bathroom and then eyed each other up before both dashing to get to the shower as they jabbed at the other’s hurt ribs to get into the bathroom first.

It led to a monstrous water and shared shower fight that resulted in lots of water getting spilled on the floor. Naruto poured all of Sasuke’s expensive shampoo down the drain. In retaliation, Sasuke managed to drop the soap underneath Naruto’s foot which resulted in him falling his naked ass on it, which left (as Sasuke pointed out), a bruise that spelled out the word DIAL backward on Naruto’s right ass cheek.

Naruto was actually rather amused that he could look in the mirror, and it spelled it out normally. Sasuke didn’t point out that it looked like Sasuke had stamped LAID on his ass except with the L and D looking a bit strange backward.

"While I'm glad to see that the two of you made up," Kakashi said sarcastically as he saw his two adopted sons horse playing: Sasuke with the showerhead off of its socket and pointed at Naruto while Naruto had the sink filled to the brim with water, using their supply of dixie cups to dunk the cups in it and then throw the full cups at Sasuke, "you've managed to make the water seep down through the bathroom floor to the kitchen ceiling."

Kakashi threw towels at both of them, chuckling at the bruise on Naruto. Sasuke seemed to have LAID one on him pretty good.

"After you clean up here, expect to mop up what has fallen to the kitchen floor from the water damage. Oh, and you will get to paint over the lovely new water stain you’ve created on your three days off: plus the rest of the kitchen to match it," Kakashi said, smiling happily.

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other, equal grins on their faces as Kakashi was bombarded with a blast from the showerhead and several dixie cups filled with water.


Next Chapter: Mental Warfare


Special thanks to Darkalbino who pointed out the irony of DIAL being spelled backward on Naruto. My perverted mind actually missed that wonderful piece of manly lovin’!

Hope you liked this chapter. I did. ~ Jelp