Conquest

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Chapter 7
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Naruto was back to being his sneaky self, although he wasn’t stalking Sasuke this time around, quite the opposite. He had even decided to wear some more muted army colours. He hadn’t gone as far as to slick grease across his cheeks, forehead and nose; well, he had actually but some intervention from Kiba had him looking a little less like a deranged soldier on the run and more like your average citizen.


Naruto had a mission to achieve; he had to hand in his essay without running into a) Sasuke and b) Sakura. This seemed to be a fairly simple concept except for the problem that Professor Hatake, whom he needed to hand the essay into directly rather than into Sasuke, was nowhere to be found.


He had glimpsed Sasuke in the common room that the Life Science professors shared, having a one-sided conversation with one of the students, and he had back-pedalled quickly. He ignored his heart thumping a little too loudly; indigestion and running around all over the place was doing funny things to it.


So once again he was camped outside the grey-haired professor’s office, flicking his phone open and closed to check the time and for something to occupy his hands with. Every time he heard the tap, tap of shoes on the vinyl floor Naruto jumped slightly, several times dropping the phone in his hands. The time was now 9:50, he had been waiting for almost an hour and there was only 10 minutes left until he missed the deadline. This was really irritating for Naruto as he had the essay complete; rewriting work from several textbooks took quite a lot of effort but he had completed it and now he was being sabotaged.


When he had turned up at Lee’s door earlier that morning, he had received a sad shake of the head. Sakura had left explicit instructions to the bushy-browed enthusiast. Lee was not to hand in the paper and was to get Naruto to class on time. So after Lee’s profuse apologising of having his hands tied, that the promises of true love could never, ever be broken, Naruto had been tackled.


The strength of the ‘Amazing Smooth Moves’ Uzumaki had been pit against Lee of the Fuzzy Eyebrows. The battle had been fought long and hard, both putting their all into the fight, fighting for their beliefs. Naruto had found it difficult to lay a hand on Lee, not because he was incredibly fast with amazing agility, it was more due to the fact that Lee had recently come back from his morning workout. He was sweaty in his spandex outfit; Naruto felt it was in his best interest not to touch any of the appendages that moved around in that green abomination. Lee had managed to lay several hits on Naruto though, apologising as he did so, claiming that it was for the greater good.


Naruto had admitted defeat and waved his white flag. This was done by running and hiding. Lee had chased but had had to give up after failing to see Naruto crouching low in some bushes.


Once again looking anxiously at his phone, Naruto leapt up and decided to have another look for the elusive professor in the labs. He ran quickly, his much crumpled essay clutched in hands and backpack swung over one arm. On arriving he found it empty. Frustration building up led to him slamming his fist into the nearest bench.


“Mmm, well someone has a temper,” a thoughtful voice came seemingly out of nowhere. Naruto swung around looking for the source but the lab remained empty. He really hoped he wasn’t going crazy, there were enough things to worry about without adding insanity to the list.


“Ah, Naruto right?” The voice of who Naruto was now convinced was God spoke again. He felt God really should know his name. Finally thinking outside the box, he looked upwards to feel the full effect of God’s words. Only to find that Professor Hatake stood there on a platform above the lab, leaning on a glass barrier, watching him with amusement.


“Professor Hatake! I have my essay!” Naruto yelled out, waving the papers in the air.


“Mm, so I see, why don’t you come up? I’d like to have a word with you also,” the professor’s voice took on a more serious tone. Naruto looked around for a way up, considering climbing as now he had less than 5 minutes to go.


“Just through the door over there, the stairs will take you up,” murmured the grey-haired man from behind an orange book.


Looking around at his new surroundings he saw a few desks with computers and the usual clutter of books and paper associated with them, a sofa against one wall. Professor Hatake now stood with one elbow supporting him on the glass barrier, the other arm holding his novel as close as possible to his face; he seemed to be a little short-sighted.


Naruto proudly presented his essay, his mission complete, no Sasuke, no Sakura and he had defeated Lee. Now all there was left to do was to do it all in reverse.


“Take a seat Naruto; I’d like to talk to you about your attendance.” Professor Hatake snapped the book shut and trained his one eye on Naruto’s bewildered ones. This was university; no one noticed attendance in a class of three hundred.


The lazy stance remained as the professor spoke in a similar tone, “I am aware that you have not been attending class for some time and have been handing in assignments late. Are there any mitigating circumstances that perhaps the university should know of?”


Naruto shook his head in reply.


“Well then can you explain your absence?” The professor looked stern now and Naruto hardly thought the reply of, ‘I came onto the TA and got shot down,’ would cut it. He urged his brain to think fast but was cut off before he could come up with a suitable answer.


“Unless you show a significant amount of improvement I’m afraid I’ll have to reconsider you for the internship this summer.” Naruto’s eyes grew very wide at this final statement.


“But! I-” Naruto rose up from his seat ready to give a stream of reasons about his dead grandmother, his dead pet, whatever got him out of the eerily calm look the professor was giving him.


“Naruto, simply improve, turn up to classes and hand in your assignments on time, that shouldn’t be too much to handle.” He was once again reading his book and Naruto felt the strong urge to hit him over the head with it. If that is what he had to do, then fine, Naruto was tired of running away anyway. He could handle anything the smug arrogant Uchiha would throw at him and he’d do it with style.


“I’ll improve professor! Don’t worry about it!” he beamed brightly, if a little forced.


“One last thing Naruto,” the lazy tone was back causing Naruto to pause on his way out. “If you are interested, there is a spot open for supervising the first year experiments. It pays quite well.”


Naruto thought of his bank balance, the negative numbers and the worries that came with the little minus sign had been pushed to the back of his mind. It would mean more ramen and maybe even that orange leather jacket that Sakura wouldn’t let him buy.


“I’ll email you the details,” he must have noticed Naruto’s glazed eyed look of lust as the professor appeared to be amused. “I believe you are now 10 minutes late for class,” Professor Hatake spoke evenly raising his one visible eyebrow.


...


“So if you remember your earlier lectures on cell signal-” Sasuke stopped mid-word as the door of the lecture theatre opened. He opened his mouth to make a smart comment about unwelcome late-comers when the hue of blond hair colour in his periphery stilled the words out of his mouth. He watched as Naruto picked up his bag, barely glanced at him and made his way to the row of seats, taking the steps three at a time before slipping into one of few available aisle seats.


For Sasuke, seeing that bright hair seemed to lighten the room a little, even though for the rest of the class a tense silence had ensued. A pointed cough came from the back of the hall, snapping Sasuke back. He searched for Naruto again, wanting a glimpse of blue eyes but was surprised at the disappointment he felt when he saw Naruto rooting through his bag for his writing utensils.


He hadn’t seen Naruto for well over a month now, though it had felt longer. He had found himself scouring his class at the beginning of each session for a combination of yellow, blue and orange. His feet had almost taken him to approach the pink-haired chick that Naruto always sat with.


As Sasuke started up the lecture again, his eyes flickering across the students, staying just a little too long on Naruto, he thought about how harassed Naruto looked, he wasn’t even wearing his typical orange nor did he have that stupid leering grin permanently pasted across his face. Sasuke couldn’t decide if this was an improvement or not. He had mentioned to Kakashi, in passing, about Naruto’s absence the other day and was surprised to see that talking to the pervert actually produced some results.


Contrary to popular belief Sasuke wasn’t a cold-hearted prick; he had been concerned about Naruto’s absence. As more time passed, he had regretted his harsh words towards the lively student, though not the rejection, just the manner in which he had gone about it.


‘We didn’t have to reject him at all’ Sasuke-whore reared his ugly head. ‘We could have had him. Fucked him six ways to Sunday and then done it all over again and again.’ Sasuke once again stopped mid-word and seemed to stare into space for a moment or two, until Sasuke-ice prince made an appearance, ‘The lecture, get on with the lecture and stop listening to that dumb-ass.


The lecture continued with minimal input from the residents in his head, though Sasuke couldn’t help but secretly agree with Sasuke-whore. Naruto still looked amazingly good, really fuck-able. Although his conscience made the point that the dullness that was now Naruto’s aura was more than likely Sasuke’s fault.


As the revision session continued and Sasuke’s attention was steered away from Naruto by the numerous questions from people who really shouldn’t have been taking his course in the first place, Sasuke came to the realisation that Naruto just wasn’t looking up. He made notes fast, glanced at the overhead projector from time to time when diagrams were put up, other than that no eye contact was made. This irritated Sasuke more than anything, something told him that Naruto had given up. It struck a blow to his ego and left a sick feeling in his stomach.


He finished the lecture with details of revision websites and provided Kakashi’s email rather than his own. Sasuke watched the students pack away their things, fending off any questions with stony looks as he watched Naruto. Naruto was almost one of the first out of the door. Almost, because Sasuke’s feet took a life of their own; as did his mouth.


“Naruto, a word please?” he spoke loudly, his tone neutral. Naruto hesitated at the door as other students on reflex glanced back at him. Naruto’s shoulders stiffened visibly before he turned and approached Sasuke.


“What do you want?” there was none of the underlying mischievousness or the matching brightness; the words were abrupt and irritated.


Sasuke observed him coolly; despite his mixed feelings for the man before him he was his teacher of sorts and did actually have the inclination to help.


“I have your essay from last week,” he turned and moved through his files before plucking out the right one. “Here,” he stood awkwardly wondering how to offer his help in tuition. ‘Simple, tell him you’ll fail him if he doesn’t get on his knees and suck you off on your desk.’ Sasuke shivered a little as Sasuke-whore provided him with mental images of what his cock would look like sliding in and out of Naruto’s mouth.


Shaking off the pictures of Naruto deep-throating him, Sasuke opened his mouth to offer his assistance as a tutor. After all that was part of his job, to make sure the students understood the material, not to get entangled in their complicated, loose sex lives. His words were cut off by the greeting of blazing blue eyes narrowed at him. Naruto’s muscles were noticeably tense as the paper he had been handed was scrunched tight in his fist.


“42 percent?!”


The raw anger in Naruto’s eyes would have made a lesser man quail but Sasuke was proud, arrogant even, the boy before him had no reason to be angry about his grade. Sasuke had been fair.


“It is what you deserved,” Sasuke spoke with his automatic calmness; he was not interested in placating a childish student who was not aware of their own capabilities.


Naruto’s hands clenched tighter around the essay, “What was wrong with it?!” He was quite obviously resisting the urge to shout as the words came out as a feral growl.


“None of your tables and diagrams corresponded to the text,” Sasuke murmured in a clinical tone.


“Well no shit, what’s the point of repeating myself?!” This time Naruto did yell, his frustration boiling over. Sasuke knew that the grade carried a significant proportion of the final course mark but Naruto should have known better.


“Look, your grades have been slipping, I can hel-” for the umpteenth time Sasuke was cut off. Naruto had moved into his personal space, as he had done so many times before. He didn’t radiate sexual energy this time, the unrefined sense of power was of anger.


“I do not need your help,” Naruto snarled, “Got it?” Sasuke looked coolly back into the burning eyes. He would not be intimidated. Naruto was still invading his space, the irrational anger causing the younger man to breathe heavily.


The tension was thick. It seemed to Sasuke that the only confrontational situations he had been in were with his brother and lately the man before him. Sasuke made no move to answer back, though his primal instincts were telling him that he should be smashing his mouth against the lips a few inches away.


“Good,” Naruto’s voice was a little calmer though his eyes were still glaring into Sasuke’s condescendingly tranquil ones. Sasuke watched with an almost detached sort of fascination as Naruto left the lecture hall. It didn’t occurred to him how odd his feelings of wanting to kiss, wanting to help, and his concern for Naruto were.


...


Several hours later Naruto was still furious with himself. He was sitting cross-legged on his bed, surrounded by textbooks, random notes and bits of paper strewn with no order whatsoever. He pulled at his hair, going as far as to yank a few strands out before letting his hands fall into his lap. Looking up at the ceiling, he squinted at it thoughtfully. Clearly the big guy upstairs enjoyed torturing Naruto. He seriously considered bribing whatever unknown god was meddling in his life with cookies but figured the deity would be more into goat sacrifice considering the state of Naruto’s affairs.


He was still pissed off that he had lost his temper in front of Uchiha; he was even more annoyed to find that in the month that had gone by the fuckwit still looked perfect. It didn’t stop there though. Naruto was horrified to find that he still wanted the bastard. Physical attraction was one thing but seeing the small amount of pitying sympathy in the stuck up ass’s eyes had made Naruto's anger boil over.


The release of his anger had been done with a tried and true method. Having stomped all the way home, he had entered his room, followed closely by Akamaru. He had yelled himself hoarse, combined with Akamaru’s howling. Both man and dog had been out of breath after 15 minutes. Naruto would have continued but there had been several loud thuds against the front door which were interrupting the flow of passion. He had opened the door and narrowly avoided being hit in the head with a spiked heel. Ducking, he had been able to see Kankuro sitting on the couch in Gaara’s apartment, chucking Temari’s heels at the apartment door.


“Cut that shit out,” was accompanied by a red stiletto.


Naruto had then tried the meditating crap that Sakura was always babbling about. He should have known better considering her anger management skills. Naruto had sat on the living room floor, cross legged with pins and needles after 10 minutes, listening to the tick tock of the clock. The clock was now in the trash.


It was now evening and Naruto’s rage had diminished little. If he were honest, he knew it was more because of how he had handled the situation rather than what Sasuke had said. Although, the bastard had really gotten under his skin with offering to help, whatever good intentions Uchiha had be damned. He was irritated with himself for still wanting the asshole so bad. It was frustrating.


Trying to study had built up his frustrations even more. He felt the burn of needing to do well yet one incident with the TA had lead to all his thoughts concentrated on those dark apathetic eyes, he just knew there was something behind them.


He was snapped out of his thoughts when Kiba materialised out of nowhere and poked him in the nose, “Oi, you in there somewhere?” He found a pair of auburn eyes peering intently into his. Smacking the hand that still continued to poke, he glared back.


“Whoa there, what’s nested in your ass?”


“Nothing,” Naruto sounded like a petulant child sulking.


Kiba gave him a sceptical look, “Whatever. Your butt has been moping about too much lately. C’mon, need to talk to you about something.” His spiky-haired flatmate rose from his crouched position and moved towards the door.


Akamaru abandoned Naruto, following his true love. Naruto sighed wistfully; he wanted love like that. He squinted his eyes at Akamaru and considered hiding the dog biscuits. Traitor.


...


Kiba grinned nervously at Naruto who was sitting on the couch alternately glaring at Akamaru and shooting him suspicious glances.


“What did ya want? I have a shit load of work to do you know! Time is money Kiba! Time is money!” Naruto gave him another petulant/constipated look as his leg started to jig in his impatience.


They were waiting for Hinata; Kiba felt it was vital for his family jewels that she was present when he broke the news to Naruto.


“Kibaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaa…” Naruto took in breaths between his whining and the massacre of Kiba’s name.


“Just give her 10 more minutes!” Kiba shot Naruto an annoyed look who stuck his tongue out at him. Hinata was never late; her father must be keeping her longer than expected.


“C’mon Kiba, spit it out already, it can’t be that bad that you need to hide behind your girlfriend,” Naruto mocked. “Oh look at me, I’m Kiba and I’m a little fraidy cat so I’m gonna hide behind Hinata,” Naruto sing-songed as he and Akamaru acted out the roles of Kiba and Hinata respectively.


Kiba growled but his eyes remained trained on the door. He was worried that maybe Hinata was rethinking the idea. Their relationship was full of insecurities and he still couldn’t believe his luck every time he got to hold her.


He looked back to see Naruto making kissy faces with Akamaru who was licking at Naruto’s nose, “I luuuurve you Hinata, lets make babies!”


This continued for a while, the role play of Kiba and Hinata getting more eccentric until Kiba snapped and pounced on his best friends.


“Stop. Making. Fun. This. Is. Serious!” Kiba had managed to (with the aid of Akamaru who had once again switched sides) get Naruto face down into one of the couch cushions which he was using to smother Naruto with.


“Can’t…. breathe…” Naruto gasped and his hold slackened immediately; a dead Naruto would only come back as a ghost to scare the crap out of him in the middle of the night.


Once they had settled down again, after Naruto had attempted to reclaim his loss three times, Naruto’s whining began anew.


“Ok, ok, ok! Fine, shut up for a second so I can tell you!” This clammed Naruto’s mouth up quickly. He mimicked zipping his mouth shut, locking it and throwing away the key. Kiba rolled his eyes at the action and stood to face Naruto.


“Hinata and I… we’ve decided to erm… take our relationship… to another level…” Naruto stared at him for a few moments and Kiba stared back, hands itching to cover his crotch. Then he was tackled.


His back hit the ground painfully as Naruto straddled him. “MAN! I am so proud of you! Finally!!” Naruto was taking this new information well.


Naruto shook him by the shoulders. “Well you’ve done this before so you don’t need any advice right?” Kiba was definitely confused now, no, he’d never done this before. “What’s wrong? Hinata is way hot, it’ll be magical!” Naruto was now nodding enthusiastically.


Naruto got up and held out a hand to Kiba, as the brunet stood he found his back being pounded in congratulations. Naruto’s reaction was way overboard and in the wrong direction.


Naruto was eyeing him gleefully, “I knew you couldn’t last all that long!”


“Naruto, I don’t think you-” Kiba began. This had gone horribly wrong; he knew he should have waited for Hinata.


“No need to say another word, I’ll leave the apartment, go stay with Gaara or something, you guys have fun now, yeah?” Naruto winked at him. Apparently Naruto couldn’t resist the parting shot of, “don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” as he opened the door where Hinata stood with her hand raised.


“Don’t worry Hinata, you guys are all alone now, I was just leaving,” Naruto grinned at her. Hinata looked just as baffled as Kiba.


“Oh Naruto, we’re sorry!” Hinata enveloped him in a hug and now it was Naruto’s turn to look bewildered. Hinata released him quickly, blushing at her own boldness.


“Erm, it’s ok?” Naruto patted her arm. Kiba looked at the both of them and felt like screaming.


Taking a deep breath he reached for his primal senses, calming himself down. “Listen Naruto, it’s not what you think,” Kiba shook his head as he spoke.


“Huh? You and Hinata are gonna…” At this he turned his back on Hinata, made a hole with his left hand and stuck his right index finger into it… repeatedly, “Right?” His eyes expressed his confusion and his finger absent-mindedly continued its thrusts into the hand made hole.


“No! I mean yes! Later, but no, it’s not that!” Kiba shook his head again trying to clear the images of what Naruto had unintentionally provided him with.


Hinata was now occupied with Akamaru, so Kiba decided to try again on his own.


Another deep breath, “I’m moving out and moving in with Hinata.”


Everything happened in slow motion. Hinata came to stand beside Kiba, Akamaru quieted sensing the sombre atmosphere and Naruto’s hands dropped.


“Oh…”