Trying Not to Love You Chapter 18: Filler: Why Must I Be a Teenager In Love, a Harry Potter + Naruto Crossover fanfic

A/N: In this chapter, Naruto reflects upon his new relationship with Sasuke as he 'stands up' against a thuggish Slytherin student.

FILLER: "WHY MUST I BE A TEENAGER IN LOVE?"

The rest of the day went by agonisingly slow for Naruto and Harry after the latter's heated shouting match with Umbridge. It quickly became the main source of conversation among the other students to their annoyance, frustration and mortification. The time came when they started walking to the Great Hall for dinner, and Harry and Naruto were getting sick of being the centre of the attention for all the wrong reasons.

The bright side to Naruto's day was when he finally got what he wanted for a long time: Sasuke. The blonde spent the remainder of the day walking around in a daze after Sasuke left for his next class, brushing chaste kisses on his whiskered cheek and lips with the promise that he'd 'see him later'. He still couldn't believe that the usually cold, elusive and stoic Uchiha he had grown up with actually reciprocated the deep affection he felt for him.

He's always been annoyingly secretive and dismissive of anyone who tries to get close to him. But why wait this long to tell me how he feels about me?

Since Sasuke defected from Konoha three years ago on his blind, ambitious pursuit for power to put his murderous older brother out of commission; Naruto had been questioning his own sexuality as he mourned the loss of his best friend and rival. He had always believed that he had strong feelings for Sakura, since he had constantly flirted with her since they started out as academy students; and earning numerous lumps and bruises for his attempts by Sakura personally. He had routinely resented and fought competitively with Sasuke - without considering the thought that the Uchiha might've already liked him from the first time they met.

Hopefully not because of that fricken accidental kiss we shared on our first day as Genins …

Naruto prayed that it wasn't the case. Overtime after Sasuke had left Konoha, his crush on Sakura quickly changed into deep respect and affection better suited towards siblings; something that Sakura happily reciprocated, as she still held (unrequited) feelings for Sasuke himself. Naruto's interest had then briefly turned towards the shy, timid Hinata Hyuga, but he just as quickly decided against pursuing that relationship, partly because he felt Hinata was too quiet and too shy for his tastes, and because his good friend Kiba Inuzuka had set his sights upon the Hyuga heiress and tended to be territorial to every other male except for Neji Hyuga - Hinata's older, overprotective first cousin - whom scared Kiba shitless. Now, Hinata was just a close friend to him - even though it was still a little odd when she would randomly turn red and faint every time she saw him.

Shit, why me?

~FLASHBACK~

Naruto remembered the time when he finally came to terms that he was gay and realised that Sasuke Uchiha of all people was the one who had his heart - wholly and irrevocably. He came to this conclusion when he and Jiraiya (or Ero-sannin as Naruto called him, much to Jiraiya's annoyance) had finished training for the night. He had stayed up lying next to the campfire listening to Jiraiya's loud snoring and was staring up at the endless starry sky, questioning if Sasuke was doing the same thing wherever he was. When he finally drifted off to sleep, all he could think about was Sasuke.

At first, the dream consisted of memories both positive and negative. Then it went to another extreme: Naruto confronted Sasuke by intercepting him and slamming him up against a tree, snarling into his face.

"Why are you doing this, Sasuke!" He shouted desperately, his knuckles turning white from clenching them into fists out of sheer frustration.

"Why do you need to go with that snake freak to get stronger when you can stay in Konoha to do just that?!" What happened next scared Naruto completely. Instead of snarling and violently shoving him way - which would eventually erupt into a huge fight - Sasuke instead smirked at him with a sultry grin.

"Why don't you try and convince me to stay, dobe? Since you obviously want me to."

"Say what?" Naruto spluttered. He had watched as the Uchiha slowly lifted a graceful hand and tenderly stroked his whiskered cheek with the back of his hand.

"You heard me. Convince me, beg me to stay." He urged as he trailed feather-like touches down Naruto's neck, disturbing the peach like fuzz on his tanned skin. Naruto shivered involuntarily and his grip slackened. But instead of taking Naruto's hesitation as a chance to escape, Sasuke leaned in and started licking, sucking and nibbling on the exposed tan neck leaving hickeys here and there. Naruto trembled as Sasuke began performing what had been back then, taboo bodily gestures towards the then fourteen year old's body. So much so that Naruto had woken up with a yell, trembling and experiencing a very foreign stickiness inside his pants. To his embarrassment, Naruto thought he had wet himself in his sleep and sheepishly tried to hide the evidence from Jiraiya. Unfortunately fate was not on his side and a curious Jiraiya caught him redhanded trying to clean his pants in a nearby river.

A perverted grin spread across the 50-year-old's face.

"Good dream last night, eh brat?" Jiraiya had leered at a very confused Naruto.

"What do you mean?" Jiraiya had then realised that Naruto obviously hadn't learnt about the birds and the bees at that point and very calmly sat Naruto down and explained it all to him.

"OH MY GOD!" shrieked Naruto at one point, causing Jiraiya to cover his ears in discomfort.

"Oi! Lower the decibels, kid. I'm only two feet from you." growled Jiraiya, jamming a finger in his ear and twisting to regain his hearing. Naruto hoped and prayed that Jiraiya didn't ask him who he had been thinking about when he had this so called 'wet dream'. Thankfully, the old man still had some tact within him and the subject was not brought up. However, when the wet dreams continued on a regular basis and was triggered by a certain Uchiha - Naruto knew he had to ask Jiraiya some very awkward questions.

"Er, Ero-sensei?"

"Yo?"

"I think I might be gay." Jiraiya stopped what he was doing as he raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Naruto questioningly.

"And how did you come to that conclusion?" When Naruto hadn't replied, the toad sannin sighed and sat down beside the obviously worried blonde and listened to all the concerns Naruto had. Finally, Jiraiya stood and wondered over to his satchel, pulling free several of his erotic books.

"Look, brat. There's nothing wrong with being gay. It's not my cup of tea, of course as I prefer curves and a nice rack; but I haven't got a problem with it." When Naruto brightened in relief, Jiraiya gazed at him sternly.

"But there are people out there who will have a problem with it - so be careful who you tell. Only say when you feel sure that they won't do something drastic either to you or broadcast it to society in general." Naruto blanched in fear when Jiraiya had said this, but nodded. Jiraiya passed the books to Naruto who frowned.

"What's this?"

Jiraiya grinned pervertedly.

"My latest novel." He said proudly. "Think of it as a guide book." Naruto looked a little unsure as he thumbed through the pages and flushed beetroot red when he came across a particularly graphic looking illustration, and immediately slammed it shut.

HENTAI ALERT!

Jiraiya tossled his hair.

"C'mon. Time to train! This time we're going to learn how to get out of a genjutsu should you ever get caught in one." Naruto nodded and got to his feet, abandoning the books among his possessions. As he straightened up and followed his sensei to a nearby river, the former decided to venture another question to sate his curiosity.

"One more thing, kid. Who's the guy you've got your eye on all of a sudden?" Naruto flinched.

"Uh, Sasuke Uchiha?" Jiraiya's mouth dropped open, but he quickly recovered and cleared his throat distractedly.

"You've got good taste, I'll tell you that. Incredibly insane, stupid and dangerous taste, but good taste nevertheless."

~END OF FLASHBACK~

Naruto grinned at the somewhat embarrassing memory, but was grateful for his former sensei's help and guidance. He'd have never fully come to terms with it if he hadn't.

Naruto returned to the present and groaned when he realised that he and Harry were still the topic of interest. The stares and whispering were starting to piss him off, and he could see that it was grating on his charge's nerves as well. The blonde and his charges turned a corner and found themselves standing on the constant changing staircases. However as the four of them stepped upon one, they realised very quickly that they were not alone. A large group of students had been following them for the last five minutes and Naruto eventually had to turn around, glare at them and raise his charka levels slightly.

It was enough to make the students unknowingly sense it (since they hadn't been in classes with Kakashi-sensei long enough to realise that was what they were doing) and scatter. Only the more gutsier and stupid students A.K.A the Sytherins (with the exception of Sasuke obviously - although he had called Naruto a moron for starting a fight with an obviously unstable woman, which had earned Sasuke a sore shin from an annoyed Naruto) merely sneered at the glare and continued taunting, leering and generally bullying the four of them.

"Oi! Piss off!" snapped Ron, spinning round and gradually turning red.

A classic warning sign.

Hermione pulled Ron away from them trying to avoid conflict, but privately agreed with Ron's angry outburst as she sent the group of Slytherins disapproving glares. Harry chose to ignore them entirely as he had enough problems without Umbridge somehow materialising from out of nowhere, and giving him more detention for catching him in the act of telling them all to belt up. He and his friends continued down the corridor. However, he was losing his patience when the Sytherins just continued following them.

Sheesh, don't they have something better to do with their time?

He was about to turn around and tell them to fuck off when Naruto beat him to it … coming face to face with a particularly large and clearly very foolish Sytherin sixth year who was taller than Naruto by a foot.

"I believe my friend just told you to fuck off. Or are you hard of hearing?" snarled Naruto, trying to push back a suddenly very eager Kyuubi from taking over his body and manifesting himself. The large oafish sixth year merely gave him an unimpressed smirk before seizing an unflinching Naruto's robes and pulling him up to his level.

"What if we don't want to, huh?"

His crones behind him started sniggering stupidly as Harry, Ron and Hermione looked on with concern. None of them noticed a solitary figure hidden in the shadows watching the commotion intently. The shadow-like figure's eye bled red as he slowly extracted something from his pocket that looked sharp and well polished, but he made no move to strike.

"What are you gonna do about it?" The bully taunted and started chortling in what he probably thought was very intimidating, before the laughter petered out and he gasped in pain and fear. His gang of cronies stopped laughing when they heard their gang-leader's cry and the Golden Trio widened their eyes wondering what was happening, until they saw the look of complete horror upon the thug's face. Naruto had taken a iron grip upon the thug's wrist and had gently removed it from his robes, twisting the wrist in the wrong direction.

An evil laugh gurgled in Naruto's throat.

"I'm not sure you really want to know the answer to that particular question." A deep, sinister voice spoke out, and it was then to Harry's horror that he realised it wasn't Naruto talking at that moment … it was the Kyuubi. 'Kyuubi' effortlessly seized the horrified thug up by his own robes before hoisting him into the air so that the boy was barely touching the ground with the tips of his shoes.

"Let's test that theory, shall we?" 'Kyuubi' queried with a falsely pleasant voice. Harry knew it was time to intervene and immediately darted forwards to stop Kyuubi from doing something unforgivable, but not necessarily something that the fox demon would regret. So he grabbed 'Naruto's' shoulder.

"Okay, Naruto. I think he's learned his lesson now." Harry hastened to explain trying to calm down his obviously angry friend and bodyguard. 'Kyuubi's' head snapped towards him and the bespectacled boy had to restrain himself from crying out. Naruto's normally cheerful and kind cerulean blue eyes were now the blood red animal like slits he remembered back in the bedroom he shared with both Ron and Naruto, and the normally pencil-line thin scars on the tanned boy's cheeks were now thicker and blacker than before.

"Stay out of this boy, this is my fight." growled 'Kyuubi' before turning his attention back to the whimpering Slytherin sixth year dangling above him. However, before he could do anything else, a hand encased within a black fingerless glove descended onto 'Naruto's' shoulder. The Hogwarts students, the Golden Trio and (reluctantly) 'Kyuubi' followed the arm attached to the hand towards the face of Kakashi, who for once in his life was early and had incredibly good timing … albeit his 'face' was buried as usual within one of his books.

"Is something wrong, boys?" Kakashi asked casually, but his tone of voice hinted that he was furious with what was happening - particularly when it involved the notorious and highly dangerous fox demon. He would be having a serious chat with Naruto once the civilians were out of ear shot. 'Kyuubi' lowered the whimpering boy to the ground, pouting as the cronies darted forward and dragged their leader away from him, not removing their eyes from 'Kyuubi' from fear that he would randomly lash out again at a moment's notice.

"Wrong? Why would there be anything wrong, sensei? You must be mistaken." 'Kyuubi' answered aiming for innocence. Kakashi's hand tightened on 'Naruto's' shoulder, causing 'Kyuubi' to wince slightly from the grip.

"That question was rhetorical, Naruto. I know very well what has happened." Kakashi replied dryly, before finally tearing his eyes away from the book and marking his place as he levelled the group of students with a warning glare.

"And it better not happen again, or else severe penalties will apply. I don't think I need to describe what those penalties might be, do I?" He addressed this question towards the group of Slytherins who looked at Kakashi quizzically before the masked teacher sighed in exasperation and moved to explain.

"That wasn't a rhetorical question this time round. I actually require an answer out of the lot of you." He indicated the Golden Trio into the equation as well. Harry, Ron and Hermione immediately nodded, having already seen what the obvious penalty was a mile away. Even the Slytherin students nodded frantically despite having the reputation of being incredibly stupid and ignorant.

Kakashi's lone eyes curled up into a 'happy' U shape.

"Excellent! Now that we've got this cleared up, get down to the Great Hall - it's almost dinnertime." There nearly was a stampede down the corridor as the Slytherin gang sped off down the corridor and out of sight. The Golden Trio hesitated for a moment as 'Kyuubi' tried to sneak off, knowing that he was in deep shit. However, he didn't get far as the same red eyes that had been pin wheeling rapidly, as well as observing (and almost participating in) the commotion glared into his own blood red ones, and he found himself being shoved firmly back into his cage and the gates slammed shut. Having finally returned to awareness, Naruto collapsed into Kakashi's waiting arms, completely knocked out.

"Naruto!?" gasped Hermione rushing over to his side, but was stopped by Kakashi.

"He's fine. Go on down to the Great Hall - we'll be along shortly. Hurry up now." Kakashi reassured firmly. Reluctantly Harry, Ron and Hermione nodded and disappeared around the corner.

Kakashi waited until Naruto's charges were out of sight before he straightened up Naruto his back facing away from Sasuke. The Uchiha couldn't decide if that was a deliberate, albeit foolish move or if Kakashi knew that he was standing there and didn't pose him as an immediate threat.

"Alright, Sasuke. You can come out now." Kakashi muttered quietly as he sharply tapped the blonde's cheek to wake him up. Sasuke chose the latter as he slunk out of his hiding place and sauntered over to where Kakashi was helping support a rather lethargic and confused Naruto to stand on his own. The copy-nin didn't miss the concerned look the Uchiha gave Naruto but wisely chose to ignore this to sternly address Naruto.

"Just what exactly were you thinking, Naruto? Letting Kyuubi take you over like that?" Kakashi lectured him as Naruto scowled resentfully at the stone floor, cursing the fox for putting him in this position.

"You could've severely hurt somebody if I hadn't intervened. How could you be so careless?" Sasuke bristled at the fact that Kakashi had taken all the kudos for 'saving' Naruto from making a terrible mistake.

"You seem to be forgetting, Hatake, that I was the one who snapped the dobe out of 'Kyuubi mode'" Sasuke pointed out, succinctly. Kakashi glanced at him with a bored look.

"The fact that you needed to use your sharingan to snap him out of it is the very reason we are 'discussing' this." Kakashi retorted as the heckles started rising on Sasuke. He opened his mouth to argue with his former sensei when Naruto unexpectedly intervened.

"Enough with the drama, for fuck sake. It's giving me a headache!" Naruto snapped, gingerly rubbing his temples and willing Kyuubi to take them away. But he knew that he wouldn't because the fox was too busy sulking within his cage to give a damn.

He nearly jumped when unexpected warmth came up from behind him and pressed up against his back, indicating that Sasuke was allowing him to lean against his chest as a sign of comfort and apology. Naruto hummed in appreciation, as Kakashi chose to ignore the intimate gesture. He was partly happy that Naruto had finally found somebody who loved and respected him - but did it have to be Sasuke Uchiha? Already notorious and a traitor to Konoha.

"It's still not an excuse for allowing the Kyuubi to control you." Kakashi insisted. Naruto groaned with frustration.

"It's not like I chose to let him do that. I was tired and stressed, and Kyuubi obviously saw a window of opportunity and went for it, despite all my efforts to rein him in." Naruto explained. The Kyuubi scoffed with displeasure.

"You, the blasted Uchiha and that copy ninja ruin my fun ALL the time." He complained.

"Shut it, furball. You took advantage of how tired I was and you know it!" Naruto seethed. Kyuubi smirked.

"And I'd do it again in a heartbeat, kit." and he chuckled evilly. Naruto counted backwards from ten to calm himself down.

Stupid fox …

"Why are you so fatigued in the first place?" Kakashi inquired sceptically. Naruto avoided Kakashi's glance and blushed, remembering what he had been thinking about before the Slytherins had pounced upon him and his charges. Sasuke didn't make the situation any less awkward for him by 'tactfully' taking his hand and rubbing soothing circles upon it, trying to calm him down and help to think rationally. Kakashi noticed this gesture and the increased redness in Naruto's cheeks before putting two and two together and sighing with defeat.

"Don't worry, I've already figured it out." Naruto and Sasuke glanced at him questioningly before Kakashi waved it away, feeling a headache of his own developing.

"Just try to keep it to yourselves. You are technically on a mission at present." Kakashi reminded Naruto.

"I suggest you sit out dinner tonight, Naruto. There's a likelihood that Kyuubi's reappearance would've raised questions tonight and it wouldn't be appropriate for you to be at attendance." Naruto nodded and turned to go back to where he came from, grateful for this reprieve. But Sasuke stopped him fast by grabbing his wrist.

"Are you coming, Sasuke?" Kakashi called, already burying his face into his book again.

"Hn." replied Sasuke, his focus entirely on Naruto who frowned at him. Translation: "I'll be along shortly. You go on ahead." Kakashi shrugged and disappeared with a poof, leaving Sasuke and Naruto alone in the corridor.

"What is it, Sasuke?" asked Naruto, trying to gently take back his arm from Sasuke's grip, but the Uchiha maintained his grip and tugged him closer to embrace the blonde.

"Are you alright, aside from the headache?" Sasuke inquired gently, enjoying the warmth Naruto was exuding. The blonde nodded and relaxed into the hug clutching for dear life to the Uchiha's strong back.

"Better now that you're here." Naruto whispered back. Sasuke grimaced at his words and pulled a face as he stepped back slightly to look at Naruto.

"That's corny, dobe." Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, it's still the truth." Sasuke smiled genuinely and pulled him close to kiss him gently, trying to relax his dobe further as he could see that he was still tense and wound up from the verbal banter in Umbridge's class.

"Good evening." The boys broke apart to see Professor McGonagall staring at them sternly as to inquire why they were on the verge of making out in the middle of the corridor when dinner in the Great Hall had already started.

"Why might I enquire are you not down in the hall eating your dinner?" McGonagall chose to ignore the fact that the boys had been embracing as Sasuke stepped back from Naruto but continued holding his hand defiantly as if to say to her 'you got a problem with that'?

"I'm not feeling well and I was on my way back to the Common Room at Kakashi-sensei's suggestion." Naruto answered truthfully. McGonagall scrutinised him before turning her attention towards Sasuke.

"And why are you?" Sasuke opened his mouth to reply but Naruto beat him to it, earning a glare from his lover in the process.

"He was escorting me there. Ya know, the 'buddy system'?" McGonagall didn't seem to find anything wrong with what Naruto was saying but nevertheless decided to intervene.

"I'll take over for you Mr. Uchiha. You may go down to the Great Hall for your dinner. Off you go." She shooed him away, before turning and waiting for Naruto at the top of the staircase.

Sasuke wanted to argue but merely nodded and turned go down the staircase, but not before smiling affectionately at Naruto beforehand. Naruto sighed as he watched Sasuke disappear around the corner and turned to follow McGonagall to the Gryffindor Common Room. Upon entering, Naruto immediately settled down on a nearby couch in front of the fireplace and waited for McGonagall to say something critical about his newfound relationship with Sasuke. She didn't, instead waving her wand and producing a tray full of sandwiches, a jug of Pumpkin Juice and a small goblet for Naruto's use.

"For when you feel up to eating." Naruto nodded and curled up onto the plushiness of the couch.

"And Uzumaki…?" Naruto sat up and gave McGonagall his attention.

"In future try to be a little more discreet with your intimate moments." She smiled briefly before disappearing out of the Portrait hole, leaving an embarrassed Naruto to relax and will away his headache.

Naruto was woken up roughly an hour later by an angry Hermione, frustrated Harry and wary Ron bursting through the Portrait Hole...

A/N: Please review :)