Kiri-No-Miko

P r e t e n c e

The sun shone brightly behind closed curtains, a single ray illuminating a mop of blonde hair poking out from beneath orange bed sheets. It was an autumn ray of sun, and was quickly covered over by white-grey clouds as they shifted through an azure sky. The air around the bed was crisp and cold, but in his nest, Uzumaki Naruto was warm and toasty, nothing could spoil his sleepy bliss.

Bleep bleep bleep.

Except maybe that.

Naruto rolled to one side, attempting to block out the shrill sound with his pillows, duvets and numerous blankets, but nothing worked. Eventually, once the alarm had changed the tone of its beeping at least three times, the defeated blonde sat up groggily and felt for the switch on the back of the irritating little machine that would make it stop its noise.

When the thing stopped, Naruto shivered at the cold and slowly pushed himself out of his wonderful nest – all the while longing to return to it. He dragged open the wardrobe door, threw on his favourite orange tee and a pair of black jeans before threading a crystal choker around his neck and shuffling downstairs to his tiny kitchenette shared with seven other people.

When he reached the kitchen, only one person was still munching their breakfast; Inuzuka Kiba, his best friend and fellow slacker. Kiba turned to blink at him as he entered the room and with a particularly exhausted movement, flicked the switch on the coffee maker.

Naruto slumped at the table and Kiba joined him in silence. They sat there without speaking for a moment, before Kiba uttered a sleepy "yo"

"Mornin'" Naruto replied and the coffee finished heating. He stood up and poured them each a cup.

When the two finally finished, they dragged themselves out of the kitchen and to their first lesson together, crossing the wide open area between the six dorm buildings which stood opposite each other; Konoha, Suna, Kiri, Iwa, Kumo and of course, the newest building: Oto. Naruto and Kiba belonged to Konoha block, meaning their school house was Konoha, and they would play on Konoha's teams for inter-house competitions and suchlike.

"We're late!" Kiba exclaimed, having glanced at his watch in a moment of madness, making Naruto jerk suddenly and stare at his friend in surprise, as though this didn't happen every morning. In sync, the two friends picked up their pace and began to run, covering the courtyard in seconds flat.

By third period, both boys were still panting from their early morning sprint, and by lunchtime, Shikamaru and Chouji were still shaking their heads in disbelief.

"Why not just get up earlier?" The larger boy suggested

"Or just be late?" Shikamaru drawled, the both of them were thorough believers in doing nothing which involved effort of ant kind.

"Well . . . I dunno!" Naruto laughed, scratching his head happily.

He began to pick at his food dazedly, thinking about how wonderful it would be if they served ramen in this place, and as he did so Naruto's gaze wandered.

The cafeteria was a muddle of bodies and noise and colour, and the not-so-delicate scent of low grade school food. As he took in the different people in the queue, carrying plastic trays of unknown substances, his sharp eyes were able to pick out the monochrome beauty of one Uchiha Sasuke.

He waved happily at the raven who rolled his eyes and went to sit at a different table instead of joining them.

"Bastard" Naruto muttered

"Who?" Sakura asked, sitting down next to him

"Sasuke"

"Well we knew that already, but he's nice to look at isn't he?" Ino reminded Naruto, taking her seat on the other side of him and squishing Kiba out of the way. Being used to it, Kiba simply muttered something under his breath and began talking to Shino who was on his other side.

Uchiha Sasuke. Long-time friend and short-time crush of Uzumaki Naruto, Sasuke was the school's number one hottie. For a long while he had belonged to Konoha house, but had recently requested a transfer to Oto house due to their more up-to-date resources. Well, that was the excuse Sasuke had given, although everyone felt there must be more to it than that. At any rate, the moment Sasuke had moved to Oto, he had become more and more distant and Naruto missed him more than was usual. It was particularly difficult for Naruto to see Sasuke in Oto because the moment he entered their ranks, his popularity and standing amongst the students at Gakkure College tripled, and Naruto was left even further behind.

It was, surprisingly, Hinata who had discovered why Naruto was missing Sasuke more than usual – the others simply assumed it was due to the fact they had been together since reception, and Naruto was having problems letting go.

The discovery Hinata made was simple: Naruto liked Sasuke.

Not just liked: like liked.

It had come as less of a surprise than Naruto expected. He had always felt a deep attachment to the rich bastard, and it wasn't exactly a secret that he was bisexual. As for Sasuke, well it was widely believed that he was asexual. He never showed interest in boys or girls – but then he never showed interest in much at all for that matter.

At any rate, Hinata had made the discovery, Naruto had accepted and shared the discovery, Ino and Sakura had almost collapsed from the sheer joy their fangirl minds delivered them, and now Naruto could only gaze longingly at the object of his desire – never quite able to tell the other boy how he felt.

As Naruto gazed longingly, Sasuke felt someone's eyes on him and turned sharply, meeting the blonde's eyes. Naruto quickly shifted his gaze to a scowl and turned back to the table to face his current friends. He sighed long and low.

"What you need Naruto" Shikamaru began, sensing his mood "is a plan"

The whole table turned to look at the lazy teen in surprise.

"What for?" Ino asked dumbly, echoing what the whole table was thinking.

"To get Sasuke" Shikamaru told them with a sigh

Understanding dawned in their eyes and Naruto shifted slightly to see his pale, apathetic Sasuke staring down whichever poor sod was sat opposite him.

"Yeah" he muttered under his breath ". . . a plan . . ."

It was cold out. The wind was whipping Sasuke's hair into his eyes and he was unable to keep his eye on the ball properly. The cold wasn't helped by the basketball team's pathetically skimpy outfits; you'd have thought they were cheerleaders what with the lack of clothes they were wearing.

Cheerleaders. Sasuke shivered involuntarily. They were the reason the team was out here on the frozen outdoor basketball courts, not that Sasuke himself felt the cold – he was, after all the ice prince. But all the same, he thought the girls wimps for not being able to put up with a little bit of wind.

As the team completed standard warm-up exercises, Sasuke spotted a blonde head of hair completing a circuit of the soccer pitch, and he deduced that the soccer team, and thus Naruto would soon be bringing their warm-ups to the basketball courts. He smirked slightly, most people may have decided he was asexual, but the sight of a particular blonde in his very short, very tight soccer shorts never failed to turn him on.

He was right, as usual. Within five minutes the team was moving onto the courts and as the coaches from each team began to argue with each other about whose space was whose, the teams themselves split into their usual friendship groups and began chatting to each other happily, fidgeting and huddling together in an attempt to escape the cold.

Sasuke stayed away from them all, wrapped in his own deadly aura, until Naruto made his way over.

"Oi, Sasuke!" Sasuke made a point of ignoring the blonde "hey teme, I'm talking to you!"

"What do you want?"

"There's no need to be so rude about it" the blonde huffed and crossed his arms tightly over his chest. They stood in silence for a moment "I have a favour to ask you"

"No." Came the almost immediate reply

"W-what!? I haven't even asked you yet!"

"No."

"Teme!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow "What will it take to make you go away?" he asked, though in reality he enjoyed having the loudmouthed blonde bellowing in his ear – if he didn't he'd have walked away already.

"Just hear me out." The raven nodded once "So there's this . . . person . . . that I like." He paused here for feedback or a nod of understanding but none was forthcoming "and they never even notice me –"

"Really? I'd have thought you were rather hard to miss with that huge mouth of yours" Sasuke interjected, enjoying the rising colour in Naruto's cheeks

"SO" the blonde continued "I want you to pretend to be my boyfriend so I can make them jealous"

He wants me to . . .what? Sasuke thought to himself, but inside something was doing a weird flippy thing in his chest. He didn't like it.

"No" he said once again and Naruto's face twisted in what at first might have been but Sasuke saw a strange kind of sadness along with it "although" he added before Naruto could leave "what's in it for me?"

"I hadn't thought"

"Well think quickly and I may change my mind"

"Oh, okay! Umm . . . Free school lunches for the whole time we're "dating"?"

"It's not like I can't afford them"

"Well erm . . ."

". . ."

"Ah ha! How about protection from your fangirls for the rest of the year?" Now that was a tempting thought . . . and Sasuke had pretended to resist for as long as possible, hadn't he?

"You have a deal" he said, turning away as the coaches of each team sorted out their differences and moved to either end of the courts

"Yes! Thanks Sasuke-teme – you won't regret this"

Sasuke "hn-ed" in mock disdain and watched appreciatively as Naruto and his teeny tiny soccer shorts jogged away from him.

Well. He thought to himself I think I made a pretty good deal there.

We will love you forever if you feed our bunnies .:nod:.