Watching

Well, since it doesn’t seem that Bekah is going to finish her chapter of our joint fic any time soon, I thought I’d write out this little number. Honestly, it’s my first attempt at a multipart SasuNaru piece, so I decided to go with an easy, cliché plot. It’s an AU high school fic. Fear me and my predictability. But I hope that my writing style might give it somewhat of a twist, I guess we’ll see...

Send questions and comments to KicksR4Trids@yahoo.com and reviews are much appreciated. I’m also searching for a beta, so let me know if you’re interested. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the fic!

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto, and am making no money from this story. Duh.

***

It all started with a kiss.

…Wait. That sounds corny. There’s got to be a better way to put that. No? …Damn.

Well, it’s true. And none of it was my fault! I want everyone to know, up front, that this is all Sasuke’s fault. Honestly. Everything I will tell you, both good and bad, I blame on him.

The first thing you should know is that Uchiha Sasuke is gay. Not flamingly, limp-wristed, I-should-have-been-a-woman gay, but quiet, in the closet, I’m-so-sexy-I-could-turn-straight-guys gay.

Really. I’m the straight guy he turned.

No, wait! I’m still straight. Just… not when he’s around.

Let’s forget everyone’s sexuality for a bit, because all I’m doing is confusing myself. We’ve established that Sasuke is gay, let’s just leave it at that.

Now, the second thing you should know is… well, damn. What was it, again? There was a second thing, I swear. It was really important, too…

Oh well. You can figure it out on your own.

***

“I don’t think you understand, Naruto. You’re failing.”

“No, no. I got that part.”

“If you manage to pass, it will violate all laws of time and space.”

“Well, I feel special.”

“There is only one possible way for you to avoid repeating this course.”

“Wait, what happened to the laws of time and space?”

“You will do an extra credit project with two other members of your class.”

Uzumaki Naruto put his chin in his hands, a bored look crossing his face as he kicked his feet underneath his desk. “Extra credit? Now that would violate all laws of time and space.”

Kakashi smirked at him, the look made even more disturbing by the way his one visible eye shined with mirth at the thought of Naruto’s future torture. “Two words, Uzumaki. Summer. School.”

Gasp! The horror of all horrors!

“I’ll sign you up myself, because you are not going to be in my class for another year.”

Naruto scrunched his face up in thought. “You can’t do that.”

Said creepy Kakashi eye closed happily. “I can do anything I want.”

Weird teacher: 1. Naruto: 0.

This called for drastic measures. Naruto cleared his throat. “My busy schedule simply does not allow the time for--”

“Wow, you almost sound like you know what you’re talking about. But you’re doing the project. You’ll stay after school tomorrow with your two partners and I’ll explain the rest.” Kakashi stood, grabbing his bag and effectively ending the conversation.

Well, that would have ended the conversation with anyone else. All it did in this case was piss Naruto off. Thus began the temper tantrum.

“No way!” Naruto stood from his desk, stomping his foot. Maturity be damned, his after school freedom was being threatened!

Kakashi decided to deal with this show of maturity in the best way possible. He walked out of the room, leaving Naruto to take out his annoyance on the tiled floor beneath his feet.

Naruto quickly found that while picturing Kakashi’s face on the ground as he stomped did make him feel better, it didn’t do much to improve his situation. So, once imaginary floor Kakashi was thoroughly bruised, Naruto picked up his bag with a sigh and tugged it up on his shoulder, heading for the door.

Most people wouldn’t find the prospect of working on a project after school to be so dismal, but Naruto wasn’t most people. In fact, he was about as far from being most people as was humanly possible, in his opinion. After all, most people weren’t hated for reasons beyond their control. For most people, school was not a lesson in torture and humiliation.

No, Naruto didn’t miss the looks of disgust and disdain, or the way that the other students parted in the hallway when he walked past, as if simply touching him might somehow pass his unfortunate existence onto them. The other students of Konoha High School regarded Naruto as if he carried with him a particularly disturbing odor (which Kiba maintained was not impossible, depending on whether or not Naruto had remembered to do his laundry on that particular day).

Considering his circumstances, Naruto regarded his after school time as precious, and did not appreciate having it infringed upon.

After leaving the classroom, he found Nara Shikamaru leaning against the wall of the hallway, staring up at the ceiling as if he found it moderately fascinating. He pushed off of the wall when he spotted Naruto, however, and shoved his hands lazily into his pockets as he joined him, keeping up with Naruto’s annoyed, fast paced strides while managing to maintain his uncaring appearance.

“What did he want?”

Naruto snorted, and made a left turn onto the main hallway. He’d skip going to his locker; he’d already been in the building for longer than he’d intended. “What does he usually want? To annoy me.”

“He does seem to get some sort of strange pleasure from it, but I doubt that’s why he made you stay after class.”

“I’m failing.”

“No kidding.”

“He wants me to do an extra credit project.” Naruto wrinkled his nose, as if the words tasted sour on his tongue. “I have to stay after school again tomorrow to find out more about it.”

Naruto followed Shikamaru out of the large front doors, ignoring the look he was getting from the school secretary, who sat behind her desk in the office to the left of the doors, glowering at him. He squinted against the bright sunlight as they stepped outside and began their trek across the front parking lot.

“So are you going to do it?” Shikamaru asked, pausing to avoid a late bus as it rumbled across the pavement.

“I don’t really have a choice,” Naruto responded, walking down the steps that led to the teacher’s parking lot.

Naruto wasn’t really sure why Shikamaru bothered with him. The pony-tailed boy had almost immediately taken a liking to Naruto when they had met several years ago, and had steadfastly ignored all of the other students and the things they said about the blonde boy and, consequently, Shikamaru himself for associating with him. Naruto suspected that more recently it had to do with the fact that he had his own apartment, and the other boy was able to hide there from his mother, or, as he referred to her, “the nag.” No matter what his reasons were, though, Naruto was grateful for the company.

“He’s watching you again.”

Shikamaru’s statement jerked Naruto from his thoughts, and he glanced to the right to find a dark-haired boy, arms crossed, leaning back against an equally dark, expensive looking car, which was obviously parked in the wrong parking lot.

Naruto looked away quickly, a shiver running up his spine as he felt those dark eyes on him. “He’s not watching me. And even if he was, it would only be to plot my demise.”

Naruto instantly regretted his words, as they implied that he wanted the boy to be watching him for some other reason. Of course, that was ludicrous. Uchiha Sasuke was dark, mysterious, and, as most of the female population of Konoha High was known to exlaim, “like, too cute for words!” The Uchiha had no reason to be watching Naruto, but that didn’t change the fact that he was there again, as usual, eyes on Naruto as he walked across the parking lot.

Luckily, Shikamaru chose not to comment on what Naruto had said, and instead watched as, after they had crossed the black top and made it to the grass in front of the school, Sasuke got into his car, started it, and drove off, as if that was all he had been waiting for.

***

“I don’t wanna be here… I don’t wanna be here… I don’t wanna-- Sakura!”

Naruto lifted his chin from his hands and gave his widest grin as the pink-haired girl walked through the classroom door. She paused, then gave him a clipped, “Hello, Naruto,” before sitting in a desk across the room from him and arranging her skirt primly.

Over the years, Sakura had gone from despising Naruto as everyone else did, to tolerating him, to… well… actually, she had remained firmly on tolerating him, and refused to budge. But hey, Naruto figured it was better than nothing, and continued to shower her with his affection.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as he hopped up from his desk and took a seat next to her, pretending to miss the way she rolled her eyes.

“Didn’t Mr. Hatake tell you that you were going to be working with two other students?”

“Oh yeah!” The grin returned to Naruto’s face full force. “But he didn’t tell me it was gonna be you! Maybe this won’t be so bad after all… I mean, all day I’ve been worried I was gonna have to work with somebody like--”

“Welcome, Sasuke,” Kakashi said as the dark boy entered the room, expressionless gaze instantly landing on Naruto. Sakura’s cheeks flushed a light pink, but Naruto sat up straight in his desk in shock, pointing an accusing finger at Sasuke.

“Stalker!”

Silence reigned for a few moments as Sakura and Kakashi stared at Naruto as if he had grown another head. Meanwhile, Sasuke gave Naruto a condescending smirk before taking a seat beside him, at which point Naruto scooted as far to the other side of his desk as he could get, nearly causing it to tip over.

“…Actually, Naruto,” Kakashi began, clearing his throat. “Sasuke is the other student you’re going to be working with.”

Naruto blinked dumbly a few times before scratching the back of his head sheepishly. “…Oh.”

“Now,” Kakashi began, standing from his desk and looking pointedly at Sakura until she stopped staring at Sasuke and focused on what he was saying. “I’m glad you three have chosen to do this project.”

At that, Naruto snorted, and Kakashi gave him an amused look before continuing. “Your assignment is to get to know each other.” Sakura seemed to brighten, stealing glances at Sasuke again, but Naruto had begun to bang his head on his desk, so Kakashi added quickly, “I’m not saying I’m going to force you to spend time together during school, but you will need to spend some after school time around each other. We’ll be doing separate work together as well, community service projects and the like.”

“Community service?!” Naruto demanded, blue eyes wide. “You’ve gotta be kidding me! You’re gonna have me picking up trash or reading to old people, aren’t you, Kakashi?! You’re doing this to torture me!”

“That’s Mr. Hatake, Naruto, and no, I’m not doing this to torture you.” Naruto scowled, the gleam in his teacher’s eye telling an entirely different story. “This project is to help you get to know each other.”

“Sakura and I have known each other since we were little kids, and Sasuke moved here two years ago, so he’s not exactly new. We know each other fine!”

“Shut up, Naruto,” Sakura hissed, and he pouted, looking sidelong at her.

“Is that all, sir?” Sasuke spoke up calmly.

“Almost,” Kakashi responded, leaning against his desk and crossing his arms. “You will have until the end of the year to complete the project, at which point I want a paper from each of you on what you learned about the other two, and what you learned about yourself. I will inform you on the length of the paper later, right now you just need to focus on research.”

Sasuke nodded, and Kakashi gave him a smile. “Alright, you’re all dismissed, but you really should at least take a moment to discuss your plans with each other. We’ll meet again after school on Monday to discuss your progress.”

With those words, the silver haired man picked up his bag and left the classroom, smirking to himself. Silence reigned for a few moments, and Naruto glanced from Sasuke to Sakura and back again, his expression changing depending on who he was looking at.

“We should all meet together sometime,” Sakura said, breaking the silence and turning to face the other two. “Should we go to someone’s house, or…?”

The girl seemed excited about the project, but Naruto knew it had more to do with spending time with Sasuke than anything else. Sakura was one of his most prominent stalkers… er… fans, and Naruto could just see the wheels in her head turning as she contemplated various situations she might experience if she could manage to get Sasuke alone. Well, they could have each other as far as Naruto was concerned. As much as he liked Sakura, getting scary boy off his back would be worth it.

“We can go to my house,” Sasuke stated calmly, slipping out of his seat and smoothing out imaginary wrinkles in his shirt. “After school tomorrow.”

“What if I don’t want to go to your house?!” Naruto demanded, also rising. The guy was creepy enough in school, Naruto didn’t need to see him in his natural environment.

“Then you can fail.”

…Hm. Good point.

Confident that his point had been made, Sasuke continued. “Both of you okay it with your parents and you can ride home with me tomorrow.”

Naruto decided that Sakura most definitely looked like she was going to pass out. He could see a high pitched squeal of girly happiness coming on, and decided that it was definitely time for him to make his exit.

***

And that was how Naruto found himself in the nicer part of town (which he had never been privileged enough to visit) the very next day, staring up at the large, dark house that belonged to Uchiha Sasuke. Thunder clapped on the horizon, wind blew through the trees, a distant wolf howled its lament to the poor souls fated to visit this-- …okay, not really. The house itself looked rather welcoming, if a bit empty. Naruto just really, really didn’t want to be there.

“How the hell did your parents ever make enough money to afford this place?!” he demanded, trying to take his mind off of the way Sasuke had kept looking at him in the rearview mirror on the drive there.

“I don’t have any parents,” the dark boy responded sharply, moving past Naruto and Sakura to open the large, oak front door. “I live with my older brother.”

Sakura seemed to brighten, catching on something she could use to start a possible conversation that might lead to love, romance, and her ultimate betrothal to the man of her dreams. “Oh, that’s so nice of your brother! How old is he?”

Sasuke’s response was clipped as he led them into the house. “He’s twenty-two.”

Naruto paused before entering, staring up at one of the second floor windows and the pale figure framed in it, who was looking down at Naruto with an expression of distaste. Was that Sasuke’s older brother?

“Are you coming in, or not?”

Sasuke stood in the doorway, one hand on the door to hold it open as he waited for the blonde. Naruto was struck by how similar the two figures looked, right down to the way their hair framed their faces. And who could forget that disgusted you’re-such-an-idiot look? Oh yes, the one in the window was definitely related to Sasuke.

“Of course I’m coming, if you’ll ever get out of my way.” Naruto stalked past Sasuke, pausing momentarily in shock at the way the other boy’s fingers had brushed over his lower back during the short moment in which he had passed him.

No, it had not made him shiver. He had not liked it at all. In fact, he was thoroughly disturbed.

Yeah.

“My room’s this way.” Sasuke led the way through the foyer as if nothing had happened, showing them to a long staircase. Naruto and Sakura trooped obediently behind him, following him up the stairs and down a long hallway. Sakura looked about to hyperventilate at the prospect of being in her idol’s room, but Naruto was busy studying the pictures on the walls. Pale, elegant faces looked back at him, no trace of happiness in their dark eyes. Was this Sasuke’s family? How boring.

Finally, Sasuke stopped and opened a door, walking in without a word to Naruto or Sakura. His shoulders relaxed a fraction, indicating he had just entered a place that contained the comfort and familiarity of one’s own personal space. The other two followed him inside with much less comfort, glancing around slowly.

The room itself was very different from what Naruto had imagined. There was absolutely no sign of Satanic worship. Oh well, he was sure he’d be able to find some other sort of incriminating evidence which would prove his theory that the boy was evil incarnate.

Posters lined the walls, various bands depicted on their surfaces, and against the back wall was a large bed with a dark blue comforter. To the left of the bed was a long window with curtains of the same color framing it, and the view was spectacular. They were on the third floor of the manor, so Naruto could see half the town.

“It’s so beautiful!” Sakura exclaimed, beaming at Sasuke. “Just like I imagined it would be!”

Sasuke himself looked decidedly disturbed at the thought of anyone sitting around imagining what his room might look like, and sat down at a study desk by his bed. “…Thank you.”

Sakura seemed to take this as her cue that it was time to get started, and sat down on Sasuke’s bed, lifting her bag into her lap and pulling out a notebook. “I thought that the best way to start would be for each of us to take turns telling the other two what we think are the most significant parts of our lives. Birthdays, parents’ names, that sort of thing. The other two can take notes and ask questions.”

With a nod, Sasuke turned to look at Naruto, who was still staring out the window. “What do you think?”

“Hm?” Naruto looked back at him, blue eyes startled. Sasuke’s expression seemed to soften for a moment before quickly shifting into a smirk.

“Since you obviously weren’t listening, you can go first.”

“Go first at what?” Naruto looked bewildered, and not a little bit frightened. The Uchiha was creeping him out.

Sakura patted the bed beside her, looking up at Naruto, and he slowly took a seat. “Just tell us a little about yourself,” she explained, eager to get through with Naruto and get some juicy facts about Sasuke. “Things about your life and your parents and family.”

Naruto froze, blue eyes widening comically. He actually hadn’t considered the fact that in working on a project to get to know each other, they would actually have to… well… get to know each other. The most significant parts of his life were too shameful to reveal to anyone, much less the girl he liked and the boy he… did not like.

“Well? Get started.” Sakura had opened her notebook to a clean page and was watching him, pen hovering over the paper.

***

End Chapter One
Page 9
OoKeairaOo


No idea when the next chapter will come out. Usually I’d have already written it out, but I’m being lazy. We’re talking Shikamaru lazy. So if you actually want to see it… sorry. I have to wait until I’m inspired, which could be later today, or could be a month from now. Just thought I’d warn you.

Also, something that might help me update faster. I have an idea of where I’m going to go with Naruto’s past, but I’d love to see what you readers would like for it to be. So if you have any requests or ideas on just why everyone hates Naruto and what exactly happened to his parents, leave them in a review or e-mail.

…I also need a better title. Yes, suggestions for a title would be very helpful.