Greetings and apologies. This was my first fanfiction, inspired by my love of a couple of Shakespeare's plays. It was originally "The Course of Love Never Did Run Smooth" and I was originally 'Cassidra' but due to its discovery by some of my less yaoi-friendly fans, i started a new account. I decided to re-upload this so that I could have all my fics together (but with a fresh new name), so I do apologise if you've already read it!

Warning: contains yaoi and lemons in later chapters

Disclaimer for the entire story, so i don't have to repeat it: I OWN NOTHING!

It was the start of a new college semester at Konoha University. College sophomores Naruto and Kiba were hanging out at the front gates with some of their friends, waiting for the rest of their friend group to join them from their dorms a few minutes' walk from campus. The two best friends were joking around, singing horribly off key about how great the year was going to be; only to be shut up by a vicious punch each from Sakura.

"Would you shut it, you idiots?" she snapped agitatedly, a vein popping in her forehead and the two clowns dancing out of her reach behind Suigetsu, who eyed the pinkette warily, raising his hands to show he wanted no trouble.

"Suigetsu, where are the others?" Naruto groaned impatiently, hopping from one foot to the other.

"I don't know," Suigetsu sniffed, "Who knows where my deadbeat older brother is…trying to be fashionably late probably…" Sakura sighed irritably and checked her watch.

"Well we're going to be late…" she complained, looking over to where Lee was enthusiastically leaping around a far less enthusiastic looking pair of Deidara and Gaara; both of whom were eyeing him with unimpressed expressions, "Lee, quit bothering those two; remember the last time you pissed off Gaara?"

"Oh, Sakura! I am overjoyed that you are so concerned for my wellbeing!" Lee cried, "But never fear! I am simply instilling the vigour of youth in our dear friends!"

"We don't want your vigour of youth, un," Deidara rolled his eyes and flipped his blonde bang from his face; only to have it fall back in exactly the same place. Suddenly, out of nowhere, they heard the low rumble of a powerful car engine. "Oh great, un. Typical; just fucking typical…"

A silver Camaro blasting loud, annoying rap music skidded around the corner and Suigetsu rolled his eyes at his brother's need to make a scene. It pulled up into a park and a tall, broad Junior with slicked back platinum hair got out of the driver's seat, admiring himself in the rear view mirror for a second before getting kicked in the ass by one of the back seat passengers.

"Hidan, Mum's going to kill you if you get another speeding ticket," Suigetsu remarked flatly, completely unimpressed by his elder brother's display.

"Well she can fucking try," Hidan sniffed, shrugging it off and brushing an imaginary piece of dirt off his spotless pride and joy. Deidara's expression instantly soured as he sauntered over, being followed by Shikamaru, Itachi, Sasuke and Kisame, who had been his passengers.

"How you ever manage to have sex in the back of that thing is beyond me," Kisame rolled his shoulders and clicked practically every bone in his spine, "It's tiny." Suigetsu cringed.

"And that, little brother; is why I always call shotgun," Itachi remarked to Sasuke as his favourite little brother's expression soured slightly.

"Hi Itachi!" Naruto whooped, as he and Kiba began dancing about again; then he caught sight of who he had long ago decided was the biggest pain in the ass ever. "…Sasuke…"

"Moron," Sasuke greeted in a tone just as cool, and stalked past him to greet Sakura with a kiss on the cheek.

"You're late," Sakura sniffed crossly.

"Hn," Sasuke responded as she folded her arms and leaned against him to show that she forgave him for keeping her waiting. Naruto's expression darkened. The bastard didn't have to rub it in his face that he'd won the competition for Sakura's heart. Not that there had ever really been a competition; Sakura had been enamoured with Sasuke since they were twelve years old. Now, eight years later, she had him; and they'd been going strong for over a year now. Naruto had had a crush on her for years, but Sasuke still had to go ahead and go out with her after all the years that they'd been kind of friends.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to facepalm, knowing that even a little display like that on Sasuke's part would result in Naruto needing to challenge him to something later in the day to get him back for it. Inevitably, one of them would lose, giving the other cause to retaliate; and so it would go on all year; just like the last, and the year before that, and for all the years they had known each other.

"Shut up, Hidan; no one's listening to you, un," Deidara snapped irritably, rolling his eyes as the group began walking through campus; Hidan telling Kiba and Gaara in great deal about the latest thing he'd added to his car and the last chick he'd banged and how hot she was.

"No one fucking asked you, blondie," Hidan snorted, and went straight back to his story.

"Don't listen to him, Kiba, un," Deidara snorted, already finding himself growing annoyed with Hidan's presence, "I've seen some of the girls he's gotten with; feral as hell."

"Fucking better than you could ever do," the elder boy growled lowly, pushing Deidara's head away, "Considering you look like a chick anyway." Deidara righted himself, tossing his hair to get it back into position, "Bet you take it up the ass."

"Bet you do," Deidara snorted, "Trying to hide it with the whole macho act, un; fucking any chick that looks at you."

"Say that one more time, blondie; I fucking dare you," Hidan snarled, rounding on him. He towered over Deidara by about a head, but the short blonde just glared up at him defiantly as if challenging him to punch him.

"Hey, hey," Shikamaru sighed, raising a hand from the depths of his pocket and stepping between the two, "No one's taking it up the ass…" The two boys just continued glaring at each other over Shikamaru's head as he looked bored, "Itachi, if you would send them to their respective corners?" Itachi laid a hand on each of their shoulders as the genius turned his back and yawned. Deidara stuck his nose in the air and followed Gaara off into the school. If Itachi had been anything other than an Uchiha, he would've laughed in amusement; but he was, and Uchiha's didn't do laughing. He settled on a smirk as Hidan stalked off ahead.

"Hold on," Kiba suddenly exclaimed, throwing out a hand to stop Naruto dead in his tracks. "Who is that?" Naruto turned, and even Shikamaru looked back over his slumped shoulders to look in the direction that the mutt was staring.

There was a long-haired brunette male with lavender eyes walking up to the doors of the main reception with a shy-looking, rather busty female with beautiful purple hair and the same lavender eyes.

"Neji's cousin's starting here this year," Shikamaru informed him in a bored tone, "Her name's Hinata and I think she's the same year as us." Kiba was staring, mouth agape.

"I think I just fell in love," he breathed, and then she turned her head and looked in his direction. Their gaze met as she felt eyes on her, and she smiled shyly at him. His eyes lit up. She was beautiful.

He smiled his wonky, toothy smile, trying to not look threatening, and she immediately spun away, covering her mouth with her hands and turning away, her cheeks flushing prettily.

"Oh god, she saw me!" Kiba cried, burying his face in his hands dramatically, "Oh god! This is terrible! Naruto, hide me!" He made a few jerking movements before sprinting off into the nearest building, leaving his friends very confused as to what just happened.

Hinata watched the display from afar; even more confused, and a little embarrassed that that boy had been watching her so intently. He had a kind smile though; she liked that.

"N-Neji, w-what happened to that boy?" she stuttered shyly. Neji looked over in time to see Kiba have a large arguing match with a pull-door that he had tried to push, before looking over at the two Hyugas; yelping; and darting inside as fast as he could.

"Idiots," Neji sniffed, shepherding his cousin inside, "There's no need for you to be associating with vagabonds like him, Hinata." Hinata blinked several times at her cousin's haughty response, but followed him inside.

Kiba was still cowering by the time he reached the floor that his second class was going to be on.

"Oh my god; did that really just happen?" he exclaimed to Naruto, who had sprinted up the stairs to catch up with his best friend, "Did I really just see an angel?"

"Huh?"

"She was so beautiful, Naruto!" Kiba sighed happily, "Just that little smile she did; and the way she blushed; Jesus, do you think she'd ever go out with someone like me?"

"Not a chance, dog-breath," Suigetsu laughed, coming up behind him and jumping at him, ruffling his hair, "That's the Hyuga heir you're talking about; didn't you hear what Shika said?"

"Yeah, she's totally out of your league," Naruto laughed, clapping his now demoralised friend on the back, "No way she'd slum it with a dork like you…"

"Gee, thanks guys," Kiba muttered morosely, "Making me feel really good about the love of my life…"

"You haven't even spoken to her," Suigetsu rolled his eyes, "Come on!"

"It doesn't matter," Kiba whined in a voice that sounded akin to a wounded puppy, "I just know she'll be perfect."

"Whatever, Kiba, it's the first day," Naruto snorted, trying unsuccessfully to disguise a laugh, "You've got the whole year to fail with her!" Kiba just glared at his two friends that continued poking fun at him until he and Suigetsu headed off to their biology class, leaving Naruto to head for his English class alone.

There was a disturbance in the hallway in front of the History lecture theatre.

"What's going on?" Naruto inquired of Itachi, who was headed for the same lecture theatre as him; taking extra papers at lower levels since he had time and money to kill on a college education.

"Deidara and Hidan are both taking History," Itachi replied simply and Naruto's expression fell. The Deans had tried so very hard to keep Deidara and Hidan out of the same papers. Ever since high school the elder boy had picked on Deidara; with a year of respite when Hidan moved off to college; only to have it start up again when it turned out that they were both at Konoha University.

"Shall we just keep walking?" Itachi suggested as they passed the doorway; catching sight of Hidan and Deidara yelling obscenities at each other and obviously rearing for a fight. Naruto just faced the front and followed the elder boy; Deidara-Hidan fights were things no one really wanted to get in the way of. Usually they were funny; but if Itachi said keep walking, even Naruto kept walking.

As they entered the English lecture theatre, Itachi made his way to a seat next to Shikamaru, a few rows forward from the back.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed, closing his eyes, only to be awakened sharply by a loud cry of "BASTARD!" His eyes widened slightly and he looked down at the obvious source of the disturbance; Naruto. The blonde's angry eyes were trained directly onto one Sasuke Uchiha, who was sitting in a seat with a very smug, mocking look on his face; looking very comfortable.

"You're in my seat!" Naruto exclaimed angrily, jabbing a finger at the raven, who just looked coolly down the end of his finger.

"I don't see your name on it, idiot," Sasuke smirked, folding his arms.

"That is my seat," he snarled, "I sat in that very seat in Anatomy first semester last year, and then again English last semester, and I will be sitting in it again this semester!"

"Well you should've gotten here sooner," Sasuke shrugged simply. Naruto was fuming. How dare he? That was his seat, and the bastard damn well knew that! He really wanted to just punch him straight in the face.

"You know I always sit there," he growled.

"I felt like a bit of a change," Sasuke remarked flatly, an eyebrow raising in amusement at Naruto's overreaction to having his seat stolen.

"You hate change," Naruto argued.

"…That changed."

Naruto just let out an explosive noise and stormed off to sit on the other side of the lecture theatre, ears flushing that he couldn't think of any better reason to sit in that seat other than because he wanted to. And if he wanted it, there was no way on earth that Sasuke Uchiha was going to give it up.

Shikamaru sighed heavily, "Troublesome." He leaned and lay his head down on the desk, preparing to go to sleep. Drama was so troublesome.

Itachi was thinking much the opposite; he thrived on the drama. It kept amusement in his often monotonous life, especially when his little brother was involved. There was nothing Itachi Uchiha liked more than making Sasuke uncomfortable. It had gotten a little harder since he had started going out with that Sakura girl; their mother had demanded that he be civil to Sasuke's first proper girlfriend…and Itachi had been forced to obey. If he knew everything about Sasuke's life; their mother knew things that Itachi would rather have quiet. He sat back as their teacher appeared at his desk with a pile of books and a piece of chalk in his hand.

Shakespeare was the word scrawled across the blackboard. Itachi allowed himself a small smile. It was going to be a good year.