Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ From Here to Eternity ❯ Sasuke's Shock, and Gaara's Pain ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Sasuke hates science. Naruto hates school. Gaara hates PE. Lunch. Social Studies. Sakura lets something slip that shouldn't be said.

Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Psychological / Drama / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 06.03.2005 | Pages: 10 | Words: 8.0K | Visits: 946 | Status: Completed

Veggie Crisps kick ass. Just so you know.

Kat: I listened to `Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails, yesterday. That's one sad song, man! Maybe I got the wrong meaning out of it, I'm not sure, but JEEZ!! I almost cried!!!

Naruto: You're a wuss.

Kat: ^ ^ Indeed I am!

OMG… OMG… THEFUTUREFREAKSMEOUT JUST REVIEWED MY FIC OH MY GOD!! This is like… Cloud 9 for me. The legendary spork ai AND TheFutureFreaksMeOut have reviewed my fic. I couldn't be happier… Well… maybe if I had a million dollars… -cough-

Disclaimer: I don't own Veggie Crisps, Stephen King (my favorite author. Go read his books.), or anything else that I forgot to mention.

Enjoy!

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Sasuke's initial impression of his science teacher was a snake. He wasn't sure why: Orochimaru, to him, looked more like a corpse than a snake. He had pale, sallow skin, and long black hair that just seemed to make him look dead.

He rubbed his eyes for a moment, then leaned back in his chair and sighed. It was those eyes. Those gleaming, yellow eyes. That was what made him think of a snake. He looked around the room. It was larger thank the other classrooms, with long tables that sat two, instead of single desks. The lights were bright, and left no room for shadows on the hard linoleum floor. The entire room felt sterile and cold, like a hospital. Also, there were no less than ten large terrariums around the room. Each one had three HUGE snakes in them. Sasuke wondered what would happen if they all escaped.

He was thinking like Naruto, he realized. Time to stop that.

He glanced at the clock.

9:16.

How could this be happening? It was only Monday, AND it was only second period! This was not how Sasuke liked his days to go.

Meanwhile, back in the last row, Naruto was having similar problems.

“I can't believe it's only nine fifteen…” he sobbed into his arms, his head against them as he leaned onto his desk. “We're never gonna get out of here, Gaara! NEVER!!”

“Huh?” Gaara looked lazily at his friend.

“Are you paying ANY attention to what I'm saying?!”

“Not really.”

Gaara was still tired, he still had a headache, and he was STILL in school. But at least now, he had something relatively pleasant to look at.

Gaara wasn't sure why he had never noticed how… beautiful… Sasuke Uchiha was. The ebony hair… the dark, mysterious eyes… the soft, pale skin…

Oh dear, sweet God, Kankuro's rubbing off on me, he thought, closing his eyes. He reopened them.

Sasuke Uchiha.

Uchiha.

Sasuke and Gaara Uchiha.

He blushed, realizing what he just thought.

`WHAT THE FUCK?!' he screamed inwardly, putting a hand to his forehead. `I REALLY need to stop watching those soap operas.'

“-and then I said that I hated broccoli and GAARA YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!” Naruto's shrill voice exclaimed.

“Huh? What?”

Smooth.

The blond fixed him with an odd look.

“Are you feeling okay today?”

“Y-yeah… I'm just REALLY tired,” Gaara said, closing his eyes.

“Oh.” A pause. “It's not… MY fault… is it?”

“No, no. It's not.”

“'Cuz ya know… I DID call pretty late last night…”

“Ya think?”

“I'm sorry.”

“Don't be,” Gaara said, putting up a hand. “I'm just not in a good mood today.”

“Today?”

“Oh shut up, Blondie.”

Naruto couldn't stifle his giggles. All the nervous energy he had earlier had floated up like bubbles.

At that moment, the bell rang, it's sound reverberating around in Gaara's head like a jackhammer. He winced, and massaged his temples. Everything was SO DAMN LOUD today.

However, after the bell, the entire room went quiet as the grave. Mr. Orochimaru stood slowly from his desk, where he had been seated, and walked around it.

“My name,” he said, his voice more like a hiss than an actual voice, “is Mr. Orochimaru. This is biology, and I bid you welcome. Today, you will receive your books, and I expect you to put your names in them in INK.” His eyes flashed dangerously at the last word. Naruto swallowed.

`Woah. Spooky,` he thought, with a small shudder.

Two students Naruto didn't recognize were passing out the books. The textbooks weren't as large as the math books had been, but to Naruto, they still seemed `freaking GINORMOUS!' as he would have said, if he weren't so, for some odd reason, intimidated and fearful of the teacher. For some reason, Orochimaru had frightened everyone single student in the room into stony silence. Even Shikamaru Nara was awake. Sort of.

This was very, VERY strange.

Naruto was not pleased. It was too quiet and cold in this room.

“Psst… Gaara…”

“I'm going to have to KILL YOU, you know.”

“Can I just borrow that pen again?”

Naruto had forgotten the small package of pens Iruka had given him at the end of August. They were currently sitting on the kitchen table, unopened, and for Naruto, totally unreachable.

Gaara, a murderous gleam in his eyes, avariciously passed over one of his pens.

“Thanks, buddy!”

“I'm serious about the killing thing.”

Naruto scribbled his name in messy, almost illegible print onto the inside cover of the book. There wasn't a single mark anywhere else in the entire book, he realized as he absentmindedly flipped through the pages, other than where the names were.

`Probably punishable by death,' he thought darkly, looking up at Orochimaru, who was currently breathing down a very uneasy-looking Sasuke's neck as he wrote his name in his book. `MAN this guy is creepy.'

Sasuke, at that time, was not in the happiest of moods. Orochimaru was uncomfortably close to him as he neatly wrote his name down.

`Just ignore him,' he told himself, closing the book. `Maybe he'll go away. PLEASE go away, dammit…'

He did. But he did, as Sasuke noticed, get NEARLY as close to any of the other students as he did to Sasuke. Sasuke allowed himself a small shiver.

`What is UP with this guy?'

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Gaara discovered that he did not only dislike P.E., oh no. He hated it. He despised it. He found P.E., or anything that involved `team work' to be disgusting. Today they hadn't done anything except get their lockers and be informed of the rules, but already, Gaara hated it.

He would have to be careful when he changed clothes.

“Wow, I can't WAIT till we start basketball!” Naruto said, smiling his slightly ditzy smile, and crossing his arms. “Then I'll be able to beat Sasuke-bastard in something that doesn't involve numbers or letters! Ha ha!”

Letters.

They had English next. Or LANGUAGE ARTS, as the school put it.

Whatever. Gaara was relatively good with English. After that, they had reading class, which was, without a doubt, Gaara's favorite subject.

Language Arts went on like any other class. The teacher (Mr. Umino, or, as Gaara and Naruto knew him, `Iruka') introduced himself, and passed out the books. They were big and heavy, but not quite as big or heavy as the math books, but at least twice as big and three times as heavy as the science books. Gaara had a feeling that his backpack would be needing patches by the time the first quarter was over.

Iruka didn't go overboard with the rules and expectations like the other teachers did, though. He just explained them, asked for questions, and left it at that. Gaara was very please about this.

Fifth period. Reading.

All the same students were in the room as before. Iruka didn't bother with rules. He showed them the bookshelf, and told them just to SSR the entire period. Iruka became Gaara's favorite teacher at that moment.

He pulled out his half-finished Stephen King novel, Misery, and read until the bell for lunch rang.

“All right! Lunch!” Naruto squealed like a girl, and skipped merrily from the classroom. Gaara followed slowly. He stopped at his locker, crammed his stuff inside, and pulled out his lunch. He walked past the bustling students and teachers, and was shoved into the lockers once by a group of seniors. It hurt, but he ignored them, and finally made it to the cafeteria. The cafeteria was big, and completely full.

Apparently the entire school had lunch at the same time. Gaara thought that was a VERY BAD idea. He threaded his way through the crowds, past the ridiculously long lunch line, and to a mostly empty table. There were four people there. Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi, and a sophomore and a junior that Gaara didn't recognize. He sat down at the end of the table. The sophomore turned to him.

“Hi,” he said softly. He had long black hair, and dark brown eyes. “I'm Haku, and this is Zabuza.” He nodded to the junior behind him. Said junior was HUGE, and VERY muscled. He was glaring at everyone. He glared at Gaara. Gaara glared back. Gaara decided that Zabuza was an okay person. He also remembered that Zabuza's name was in his math book. He didn't say any of this, however.

“You're a freshmen, right?” Haku continued, his lunch tray untouched. Gaara nodded. “I thought so. It's nice to meet you…?”

“Gaara. Gaara Kaze.”

“It's nice to meet you, Gaara Kaze.”

“GAARA!! THERE YOU ARE!!” Naruto's screech was close. Gaara turned in time to see the blond run up to the table, a food-laden tray in his hands. “You wouldn't BELIEVE how many people are in the line!” He sat down across from Gaara, and began to stuff his face. Then he paused, looked at Haku, and said, “Hi, I'm Naruto. Who're you?”

“Haku. This is Zabuza.”

“You're a sophomore, right?”

“Yes.”

“You're cool.”

“Thank you.”

Naruto continued to eat. Gaara pulled out his sandwich, found he wasn't hungry, and took a bite anyway. It tasted… good.

“Hey, Gaara!” Gaara looked up. The voice belonged to Kankuro, who was walking toward him, one hand holding the plastic bag, which contained his lunch, and one hand in his pocket. “What's up?” He sat down next to Naruto, across from Haku. “What's up, Zabuza? Haku?”

“Hello, Kankuro,” Haku said with a smile.

Zabuza just grunted.

For the rest of lunch, Gaara eavesdropped on conversations held by Haku, Kankuro, Naruto, and occasionally Zabuza. He learned that Haku and Zabuza were, shockingly, a couple. Gaara thought it was almost cute. He wondered how Haku could possibly get paired up with someone as huge and scary as Zabuza, but he still thought it was cute. He thought that Haku would make a very pretty girl, but he decided not to say that out loud.

He also learned that both Haku and Zabuza were in drama with Kankuro, and that Zabuza was on the football team. No wonder.

Gaara took a sip of his soda, and passed a Twinkie over to Naruto, who almost tore Gaara's hand off in an attempt to get the sugar-filled treat.

It caused the red head to smile. Then he wondered where Sasuke was sitting, and if he was having any fun today.

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Sasuke was in an atrocious mood. Not only did Sakura and Ino drag him kicking and screaming over to their table, but also it was FILLED with lovesick, over-hyped females. And as if that wasn't enough, ITACHI was sitting there, along with the entire football slash basketball team. Itachi didn't play football, but he was captain of the varsity basketball team. He played point guard, and he played it well. He had been on the varsity team since he was a freshman.

However, it was not basketball season. It was football season. Though Itachi did not play football, he was still friends with every single football player. Including the quarterback, Shisui Uchiha, Sasuke and Itachi's second cousin, and the running back, Kisame Hoshigaki.

Itachi's A list friends had enough muscle power alone to invade a small country.

Sasuke was not at all happy to be sitting at this table, no siree bob. He would prefer to sit with ANYONE other than these people. Hell, even Orochimaru would prove better company than these people! Or Naruto! He wanted to get up and go see if maybe he could find Gaara. Gaara seemed well grounded enough. Maybe they could be… friends.

Then one of the football players laughingly slapped him on the back, causing him to lurch forward painfully into the table, almost throwing up the small amount that he had eaten, and all thoughts of leaving were forgotten.

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Naruto and Gaara slunk into sixth period social studies together, both fresh from lunch. Well, Gaara slunk. Naruto swaggered. There was no teacher currently in this room. Naruto decided that he liked the arrangement.

They sat in the back row, and Gaara began his ritual of glaring at everyone who passed too close to them. But Naruto had noticed something. Gaara was only glaring at ONE person in particular, that person being Sasuke-bastard Uchiha. Naruto wondered if Gaara was mad at Sasuke for being so VERY rude to him in the halls. But… was that glaring he was doing… or was it STARING? Staring like a love-struck schoolgirl?

Naruto shook his head. That wasn't possible. Gaara didn't … Heaven forbid… LIKE Sasuke-bastard Uchiha… did he?

No. Of course not. He couldn't. He WOULDN'T. Gaara didn't LIKE Sasuke-bastard Uchiha. His vision was probably just stuck on that horribly gelled hair. Yeah. That was it.

Naruto decided it was time to start thinking about something else. When he found he had nothing else to think about, he started to hum the Brady Bunch theme song.

The bell rang a little longer than usual. Naruto saw Gaara furiously rubbing his head.

“You got a headache, or something?” he asked, the concerned friend that he was.

Gaara just glared.

Two minutes later, there was still no teacher in the room. Naruto noticed that the class was beginning to get a little restless. Hinata Hyuga was in this class. So were Shikamaru Nara, and Chouji Akimichi. Kiba Inuzuka was also there, along with some guy in sunglasses and a high-collared jacket. Naruto thought his name was `Shino', but he wasn't totally sure. There was also Sakura Haruno, and Ino Yamanaka, two of the most popular and richest girls in the freshmen class, and probably the whole school. There was also a guy with big eyebrows and black hair, Rock Lee. He was wearing what appeared to be a green jumpsuit, and he was staring at Sakura.

Not at all unlike how Gaara was staring at Sasuke.

`STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT!' Naruto shrieked to himself.

Five minutes later, there was still no teacher.

One minute after that, all Hell broke loose. Spit balls and paper airplanes started flying everywhere. Kiba grabbed the two chalk erasers, and started clapping people on the back as he ran through the room, chalk-dust scattering everywhere. Chouji pulled out a half-empty bag of chips, and began to cram them into his mouth. Shikamaru fell asleep. Just like that. It was actually kind of funny to watch. His eyes closed, his head hit his desk, and he was out.

Sakura and Ino began chatting excitedly, looking at Sasuke-bastard, and then back to each other, giggling. Gaara stopped staring at Sasuke-bastard, and started glaring at them. Naruto couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved that the old Gaara was back. Sasuke-bastard began reclining in his chair, his feet on the desk, and his arms behind his head. Naruto folded up a paper airplane and tried to hit him with it, but he missed. The airplane sailed freely until in bashed into the chalkboard, and collapsed to the ground.

Suddenly, the door flew open, and collided with the wall with a `BANG!' Everyone, including Naruto, and to his pleasure, Sasuke-bastard, jumped about a foot in the air. The room went completely silent. Even quieter than in biology. Kiba dropped the erasers, and scurried back to his seat. Shikamaru burst awake, and Sasuke-bastard hurriedly slammed all four legs of his chair down onto the floor, his feet joining them.

Then, all chalk dust billowing out before him, in walked what Naruto assumed to be Captain Ibiki Morino.

Everyone who was wondering why he was called `Captain' was now clearly informed.

He was wearing what appeared to be a U.S. Marines uniform, mostly covered by an intimidating black trench coat. His face had several scars on it, including one that jetted across his eye. He squinted down his nose at the students, then walked, straight backed, to the front of the room. He scanned the room, his eyes falling on every student for a half second, causing them to seize up, most likely in fear.

“This is,” he began, his voice deep, dark, and gritty, “the single, most DISGUSTING display I have ever had the displeasure to see!”

`That hurt,' Gaara thought, rolling his eyes.

`This guy's almost as bad as Orochimaru…' Sasuke thought drearily. `I hate to admit it, but Itachi was right!' That fact scared him ten times as much as Orochimaru and Morino COMBINED.

`This guy is WORSE than Orochimaru!' Naruto thought ruefully. `There's no way I'm gonna pass ANY of these classes!'

“I am your social studies teacher, Captain Ibiki Morino!” the teacher began. “You shall address me as `Captain Morino', or `Sir'. Understood?!” He glared around the room, daring anyone to object. No one did.

“YOU!” Morino shouted suddenly, jabbing a finger at, to everyone's dismay, Hinata Hyuga. “STAND!”

Hinata, her hands trembling, stood. Captain Morino walked down the aisle until he was right up next to her. She was shaking so badly, if there were an earthquake right at that moment, she wouldn't have felt a thing.

“What is your name?” Captain Morino asked icily.

“Hi-hi-nuh… Hina… Hi-nuh…”

“I ASKED YOU YOUR NAME!!”

“HI-NUH-NATA HYUGA-A-A!” Hinata screeched, shutting her eyes. Her face was so red, Naruto half-expected her to pop. Hinata was, without a doubt, the shyest person in the ninth grade class. No, scratch that. She was probably the shyest person in the entire school. She also had a speech impediment that caused her to stutter like crazy. Naruto felt really sorry for her.

But no matter how sorry he felt for her, he couldn't help but feel thankful that it was not HE who was being interrogated. He felt guilty for this reason, and tried to stop thinking so much.

“I'll ask you one more time: WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!”

Hinata looked ready to burst into tears.

“HI-NUH-NUH-NATA HY-YUGA-A SIR!” she squeaked finally.

“Good. You may sit.”

The dark haired girl sat quickly, looking like she was sincerely trying not to cry. One of the girls near her put a hand on her shoulder. Ino and Sakura, who were closer to the front, both whispered to each other, and giggled. Naruto saw Shino put a hand on Kiba's arm. Kiba was also red in the face, and his fists were clenched. Naruto frowned.

`I wonder if he likes Hinata…' he thought. At that moment, Captain Morino pointed at, to his alarm, HIM.

“STAND!” he commanded. Naruto felt his limbs turn to lead. But then he noticed that Morino wasn't pointing at HIM; he was pointing at Gaara!

The red head defiantly crossed his arms, and remained cemented to his chair.

`The hell's this guy think he is?' he thought.

Captain Morino was over at Gaara's desk in a flash.

“I thought I told you to STAND,” he hissed venomously. Gaara made a face like he smelled something bad, and stood up, his arms still crossed.

“What in the Hell is THAT THING on your forehead?!” Captain Morino snapped, pointing. Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow, and said,

“Are you blind? It's a tattoo.”

The entire room seemed to be empty of air. The students watched in shock as Morino swelled up like a bullfrog.

“How DARE you speak to me like that, you WHELP! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”

“Gaara Kaze.”

“Well, Gaara Kaze, you shall receive a phone call to your parents about your extreme lack of discipline.

Naruto watched in shock as Gaara's tough mask cracked for a moment, and he actually seemed scared. But the mask was back in the blink of an eye, and Gaara shrugged, and said,

“Sure. Whatever.”

“Gaara's mom is dead,” a high-pitched voice from the front of the room said. Naruto and Gaara looked up in shock, to see none other than Sakura Haruno. “And his dad is always drunk or on business trips, so you won't be able to talk to them.”

The class went dead quiet. Everyone was staring at Gaara, Captain Morino, or Sakura. This only energized the pink haired girl. She continued.

“MY Dad says that Mr. Kaze is an embarrassment to the community, but at least he brings in lots of business to the company.”

Almost every person in town worked for the Harunos. The Kaze father included.

“That's enough, Haruno,” Captain Morino cut in, feeling that things had gone too far.

So he knew Harunos. Naruto wasn't surprised. Everyone knew the Harunos. But what Sakura had said seemed to really shock Gaara. His ghostly pale face turned red, and he sat down, and dropped his head into his hands. Half the class broke out into nervous laughter; the other half was solemnly silent. Captain Morino frowned, and walked away from Gaara's desk.

Naruto almost put a hand on his friend's shoulder. Almost. But he didn't. He wasn't sure why, but something told him that any physical contact with Gaara would cause the teen to snap.

And God knows Naruto did not want that to happen.

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“Gaara's mom is dead, and his dad is always drunk of on business trips, so you won't be able to talk to them.”

Sasuke's eyes widened at the comment, and he turned to look back at Gaara.

Dead?

The Uchiha was surprised, to say the least. Gaara had always seemed like a distant person. The only one who could read his almost expressionless face was that dead-beat Naruto. Sasuke had never expected something this serious, though.

For some reason, he felt saddened greatly by this fact. Sasuke never felt like this for anyone, or anything. Except…

He shook his head. It was time to focus on things other than his own father.

Gaara did not look like he had taken the comment well. He was sitting now, and his head was in his hands. Sasuke wondered how Gaara was feeling. He wanted to get up, and go sit down next to the shorter teen, and to talk to him about this. He wanted to drape an arm around his shoulder, and let Gaara pour his feelings out to him, and maybe even to cry. He wanted Gaara to feel better, good, and happy even. He wanted Gaara to smile, and then maybe Sasuke would smile, too.

He wanted…

He wanted that stupid idiot called `Sir' to stop fucking TALKING!

“I'm going to pass out your books, and I want you all to put your names on them. I'm going to check, and if your name isn't in them, I'll have you doing push-ups until your arms fall off!”

Sasuke felt SO threatened by this, he almost gasped in surprise. That was sarcasm.

The textbooks were huge and thick, and Sasuke felt his flimsy desk groan under the weight and stress. He wrote his name in the book, and displayed it for Captain Morino as he walked by. Then he looked at the clock.

He would be out of this God-awful room soon. Then it was on to shop, and from there, home. Then he could study.

Sasuke began to wish that he had a life other than Sakura and Ino and every other living, breathing female in the ninth grade, possibly more.

Hopefully neither of them invited him to that party on Friday.

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