Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Warnings: shounen-ai, sappiness, fluff-ness, mild language, high school love life-drama, OOCness, mentions of totally negligible OCs, yeah :) Things inside the (parentheses) are not authoress' notes.
Authoresses' Notes: Sorry for the delay. Announcements and explanations at my profile page :) Thanks to everybody who email-ed, PM'd, IM'd me. Special thanks to: StarsofYaoi, Wing It, Gonrie and Konoko89 for giving suggestions, opinions and criticisms on my fics and plot bunnies :D
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This Chappie: SasuNaru, LeeSaku, GaaNeji. Mixed POV.
Hope you enjoy this installment :)
He quickly pulled out a pair of sleeping clothes and some other things he could wear, since he wasn't sure what activities did Sasuke plan to improve their 'teamwork'. He recalled his friends' unstoppable teasing when they learned -from Shikamaru, no doubt- about his sleepover at the Uchiha mansion. The jibes earned him teasing grins and snobbish glares, and it didn't help the nervous fluttering low in his stomach.
He was being silly, he decided, because he spent time with Uchiha before. Granted, they were too busy smashing each other's faces with their fists, but still... Naruto had to admit that he's also looking forward to spending time with the Uchiha in a more civil manner. He knew that they couldn't help their bickering, but there's always something about Sasuke that drew him in. He wanted to spend more time with Sasuke, because he knew that the other was hiding things beneath his 'I'm better than you' stance.
"Preparing for your date?" He remembered Kiba's innocent-sounding question. He hurried to come home after school, since Sasuke would come and pick him up within an hour. He glanced at his clock. Uh, only forty-five minutes left.
Naruto pondered whether he should go shower now. He wanted to look more than presentable, but he reasoned that it's because he's going to stay at the Uchiha mansion. Being able to come just past the gates of the lavish estate was considered glorifying already, so Naruto felt that he should clean-up better.
"It's not a date," Naruto muttered to himself as he turned the handle on his shower.
It's not a date.
I'm Married To Who?!
Fourth Chapter
Naruto's neighbors looked shell-shocked when they saw a brand-new sports car waiting for the blond as he went down his apartment. Moreover, tittering whispers and obnoxious glares followed Naruto, as the nastier tenants shamelessly ogled at Sasuke.
The blond glared at them back, feeling an odd flare of possessiveness over Sasuke. He didn't understand it well. It was bad enough when they were still actively bickering -not that... they're not bickering now, but... Now though, the flare whenever somebody stared at Sasuke too long, whenever somebody grabbed Sasuke's elbow... It became more powerful. And more irritating, too.
He made a mental note to ask Shikamaru about it. As soon as he thought of that, he retracted it, because his genius friend loved to talk in riddles that he couldn't solve.
Oh well.
Naruto was lost in his thoughts, and he didn't notice that they already arrived at the Uchiha Mansion. His rival was already poking his shoulder.
"What, teme?" The blond asked, but there was no trace of venom or annoyance. Naruto kept on staring on the tinted window, but Sasuke doubted that the blond was staring at something.
"Stop daydreaming," The Uchiha snapped moodily. He was still miffed at Itachi's cunning plans. He was still furious at the other tenants in Naruto's apartment. He felt overprotective about Naruto, but he knew fully well that the blond would never accept that... concern, no matter how genuine it was. Naruto isn't the type to accept pity or sympathy, either. Especially if it came from his sworn-enemy-of-sorts.
"Oh, sorry about that," Naruto sounded sheepish. The blond got out of the passenger's seat and gestured to get his things from the backseat.
"...We can go out tomorrow," Sasuke blurted out before he could think of retracting his statement. The look of unconcealed surprise was most probably because of his odd proposal. Or maybe because Sasuke never seemed to lose his cool demeanor; hearing him blurt out something gave a feeling nothing short of terrifying.
Sasuke hastened to further his statement. "We can... watch movies. Go to the park. Or mall," His sharp nose wrinkled at the last bit. He disliked malls with a passion, but Itachi would surely kill him if he couldn't put aside that hatred to spend time with Naruto.
The look of surprise grew; Naruto's eyes and mouth were wide open. A flush took over his face, but Sasuke also blamed the afternoon sun's rays.
"...For the photo album," Sasuke added at last. The look of utter embarassment and surprise deflated. It was replaced by a peculiar-looking emotion, something that the Uchiha could only identify as disappointment.
"Oh. Sure!" Naruto replied, but it sounded forced. Without another word, the blond carried his things and made his way to the mansion's grand doors.
Sasuke followed his wife with a puzzled look on his face.
Why would he be disappointed...?
Haruno Sakura tried her best to not shoo her husband out of her house. She honestly forgot that she agreed to Lee's enthusiastic invitations for a whole-day date, and now, she's regretting her choice. She planned to spend the whole day shopping with Ino or TenTen, but her husband's appearance at promptly eight o'clock in the morning caused her parents to order her to entertain the thick-eyebrow guy.
"Sakura-san, what should we do to start off his glorious day?" Lee enthused, a sparkling smile greeting Sakura's eyes. The pink-haired female resisted the urge to grit her teeth loudly.
After all, Lee's still one of her admirers. If she treated him too roughly, he might tell his friends that she wasn't demure and then, it might reach Sasuke-kun, and Sasuke-kun might not like her anymore, and...
She shook her head. Lee gazed at her worriedly. She waved off the concern in his rounded eyes.
Sakura pondered about where could they go. Her first instinct was to lock the two of them inside her house; nobody else could see that she was suffering under Lee's sparkling smiles. But then again, word might get out and they'd think that she and Lee did something private... And, if her beloved Sasuke-kun got wind of those rumors, he might have trouble realizing his undying love for her.
"How about we go to the mall? Gai-sensei told me that girls love the passion of shopping!" Lee cried out, eyes shining. Sakura flinched at the cheerfulness, but the idea wasn't bad. After all, she loved shopping.
"O-okay," She found herself agreeing in a shaky voice, adamantly ignoring Lee's tears of joy. Sakura's husband was currently thanking his Gai-sensei loudly for his excellent idea of taking her to the mall.
Despite the earlier disgust and irritation, Sakura found herself smiling in mirth at her partner.
"Okay, dobe, smile," Sasuke commanded with a light-hearted voice, clicking the camera as Naruto flashed a vulpine grin. They already took a couple of pictures before they slept last night.
CLICK!
Sasuke was glad that the digital camera belonged to him. He never thought of surrendering all the pictures he took. Who knew what would Kakashi do to Naruto's pictures?!
"Stop calling me that, Sasuke-bastard," Naruto scolded lightly, but he motioned for the Uchiha to come towards him so he could take a picture of the other.
Sasuke posed while seated on a fountain's edge, not a smile, nor a scowl marring his features. As Naruto peered into the camera, he noticed that with that neutral expression in his face, Sasuke looked terribly like Itachi.
Not that Itachi was ugly or anything, but Itachi was very creepy. Last night, the older Uchiha locked them together in the mansion's library while they finished some more requirements. Itachi only let them out when Sasuke began saying something about sharks, rubber duckies and a man named Kisame.
CLICK!
"Ne, Sasuke, you should pose with a smile," Naruto mused to his partner, his hands motioning for Sasuke to remain seated. The Uchiha raised a dark eyebrow at that. "You look much better, that way," The blond continued, seemingly oblivious of the pink tinge that captured Sasuke's cheeks.
CLICK!
Sasuke's next picture featured the Uchiha smiling.
They went out of the movie theatre, but strangely enough, Naruto couldn't remember the movie that they watched for two hours. He was still wearing the extra jacket that Sasuke brought along, and it made him feel... nice, when he thought that the jacket he was wearing was worn by Sasuke sometime before.
Sigh.
A know-it-all-sounding voice inside his mind told him that the real reason as to why he forgot about what the movie was about was because he didn't really watch it. Rather, Naruto was occupied in gazing at the person seated beside him.
He couldn't help it, Naruto reasoned against the annoyingly-correct voice. It wasn't his fault that Sasuke looked hot, sexy and mysterious while they watched, like all those cool-n'-handsome leads in spy movies.
"Nice movie?" Sasuke asked with a smirk playing on his lips.
Naruto frowned at his husband cutely. "Yeah..."
Before Sasuke could even make eye-contact with him, which would surely jeopardize his skills at lying, something ice-cold held his hand.
"AHHHHHHH!" Naruto cried, jerking his hand away.
There was a boisterous laugh that followed, and Naruto flushed. That laugh...
"KIBA!" The blond shouted, nearly deafening the people in the proximity. "SHINO!" The blond shouted again, after he saw the iced drink that Shino was holding. Sasuke simply threw Shino a seething, dirty look.
How dare he hold Naruto's hand...
Shino simply smirked at him. Or not. Nobody could really tell from his high-collar shirt.
"Yo, foxface," Kiba greeted him as soon as he controlled his laughter at hearing Naruto's surprised shriek. "Having fun on your date?" Kiba had the nerve to wiggle his eyebrows.
Naruto flushed again, but a grin tugged at his lips. "How's your date Kiba?"
This time though, it was Kiba who blushed to the tips of his hair.
It was eerily silent.
Silence wasn't anything new, but this type of silence was already suffocating. And irritating.
Hyuuga Neji couldn't concentrate in his meditation. The reason was understandable though; who could concentrate when those piercing jade eyes were tracking your every movement?!
Neji found that inviting Gaara to the Hyuuga dojo wasn't such a good idea, after all. Sure, they managed to get a room to themselves, resulting in a more efficient job at completing the expenditure list.
However, Gaara was acting weirdly, especially after their trip to the amusement park, in order to fulfill Kakashi's requirement of a photo album. Neji tolerated it; he has been surrounded by weird idiots ever since he was young. Faces of Lee and Naruto flashed in his mind, and Neji fought the urge to vomit. Yes, he really has been surrounded by weird-acting idiots.
But Gaara is... well, Gaara, and Neji hated to think that the scary red-head was a weird idiot.
Neji mentally counted to ten. The green eyes continued to silently stare at his back. "What is it?" The Hyuuga asked a couple of minutes afterwards.
Gaara didn't answer for a while. "You look like a girl," The redhead stated bluntly.
Oh, I look like a... Neji calmly replayed in his mind.
Then, he twitched.
"I cannot allow myself to be insulted in MY house!"
He turned around and fixed Gaara his most crushing glare, his face forming the air of wounded dignity. How could this panda-like guy say that I look like a girl?! A bloody girl?! Argh!
"...It's because you have long hair," Gaara explained in a thoughtful voice. Neji decided that he really didn't mind classifying Gaara in the same category as Lee and Naruto.
"So?" Neji sniffed disdainfully, "A lot of guys have long hair!"
Gaara stared at him blankly.
"Like... like..." Neji faltered. "Like Uchiha!"
"And his older brother," Gaara supplied helpfully.
"And Uchiha Itachi," Neji said with narrowed white eyes.
"And they both look like girls," Gaara blandly stated.
Neji shut up, his dignity still mortally wounded.
"People hit on you, because you look like a girl," Gaara said quietly after a minute, or so, and the redhead stood up and went out of the room.
Neji was left staring at the space that Gaara occupied, swirling emotions present in his eyes.
After Naruto wolfed down the dinner that he cooked (and after the dozens of ill-concealed praises), Sasuke offered to walk Naruto home. Itachi was bound to arrive home soon, and Sasuke didn't really like the idea of his older brother saying things to Naruto.
It was no secret that Itachi wanted him to confess to the blond, after all.
However, for once in his life, Sasuke didn't want to be selfish. He didn't want to push his feelings to his rival. He knew that Naruto doesn't like him. He knew it. He doesn't intend on confusing the blond because of his feelings.
But that doesn't stop Sasuke from seeking to be with Naruto, as much as possible though.
It was all too soon, though, when Sasuke and Naruto arrived at the apartment. It was getting late; Sasuke would need to call a cab to go back home.
"Thanks, teme," Naruto said warmly, grinning widely at the person who walked him back. This weekend has been very pleasant and confusing to the blond. He was a mixture of confusion, tiredness, excitement and giddiness.
Naruto has been grinning at him a lot more often, nowadays.
"...It's... No problem," Sasuke said instead, quirking his lips to form a small smile. He rarely smiled, but the pleased look on Naruto's face made it worth it.
"Good night," Naruto said, and Sasuke nodded, waving his goodbye. Before Sasuke could get very far though, a tanned hand held him back.
Erm, a tanned hand held his own pale one.
Sasuke thought that his heart stopped.
"I... I..." Naruto struggled to get out, resolutely not looking anywhere near the their joined hands.
Sasuke didn't want to count how many minutes did they stand there, like idiots who never wanted to let go.
"It's nothing," Naruto finally said, letting go of Sasuke's hand and promptly dashing towards his apartment.
Sasuke was dumbfounded. "What the hell was that...?"
"OH MY GOD SHIKAMARU I HELD HIS HAND I'M INSANE DAMN IT INSANE INSANE!"
As soon as he arrived on his apartment, Naruto practically flew towards the phone and speed-dialed Shikamaru's number. He knew that he was acting weird, but he couldn't help it. What happened was just too surreal.
"Nonononono. He walked me back and I was saying goodbye and I held his hand and EEEEEK HE'S GOING TO KILL ME ON MONDAY!"
Shikamaru muttered something, but he sounded thoroughly amused.
"Shika? Aliens must have momentarily taken-over my body earlier!"
The lazy-ass genius said something more, and Naruto turned into a combination of green, white and red. Ew. Bad combination.
"Kiba and Shino told you WHAT!"
Some more amused words.
"So what if we watched a movie?! They did TOO!"
Shikamaru explained something over the phone. Naruto fiddled with the cord of his phone.
"It's... for the project. The bastard wants to get a very, very, very, very high grade..."
If Shikamaru noticed that Naruto sounded morose at those words, he didn't say it. Uchiha would probably kill him if he told Naruto what was really going on.
Instead, Shikamaru shifted the conversation to something related to Naruto's initial outburst.
"DAMNDAMNDAMN SHIKA! I HELD HIS HAND! I HELD... OH HELL... HIS... HAND... I HELD HIS..."
Naruto's fingers loosened the hold on the phone, and the sheer realization of the brave action that he did finally hit him.
And what did Uzumaki Naruto do when he realized that he really held Sasuke's hand for apparently no reason at all?
He fainted on the spot.
"Oh damn..." Sasuke said as soon as he entered the Uchiha mansion. He forgot about the expenditure list!
He could have easily just called Naruto, but he was still feeling dazed about the holding-hands-thing, as well.
"Hello, brother, how was your day?" Itachi's voice sounded suspiciously-curious. But Sasuke was too much confused right now to properly make precautions against Itachi's interrogation.
"...We forgot to do the expenditure." Sasuke admitted, feeling bad that it managed to slip his mind. Did being with Naruto really change him that much?
"Be glad that I'm feeling generous today, Sasuke," Itachi said, and handed him a neatly typed paper.
The expenditure list.
Sasuke was about to question Itachi and thank him for this, but his older brother was gone.
Charcoal-colored eyes scanned the list, noting that Itachi seemed to have put everything already. Sheesh, nothing less from the great genius, huh?
His eyes twitched at the last thing on the list, though. He shouldn't have trusted his brother...
"Itachi!" Sasuke's voice never sounded so outraged and scary as it did. The paper in his hands was in great danger of being ripped into a million little pieces.
"Why are there 'condoms' in the expenditure list?!"
To Be Continued
Next Chapter Teaser: "Okay, class, I'm going to ask you to exchange partners for three days!" Groans and cheers welcomed his next task.
Kakashi's visible eye gleamed evilly. "Sakura, you're paired up with Sasuke; Gaara, you go to Lee; Ino, pair up with Shikamaru; Neji pair up with Hinata; Naruto, go with Sai..."
Yes, they're incredibly dense XD;;;; But that's how we (most of us, at least, lol) love them. Who cares about OOC?!!! (Hahaha, me! XD) It's fun, fluffy and cute :D
Oh, and I posted some other updates, yo! Check them out! XD
Anyhow, I was finally able to convince my mom (and more importantly, my doctor) to let me use my laptop even though I'm in the friggin' hospital :D
Thank you, everyone, for your support:)
Please review :)