Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ From Here to Eternity ❯ Scatter ( Chapter 24 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Kat: WAAAAAH-HOOOOOO! 200 REVIEWS! OH YEAH! OH YEAH! OH YEAH! -dances-
Naruto: O O I'm scared.
Soriko: Me too.
Kat: I LOVE YOU ALL! COOKIES! COOKIES FOR EVERYONE!
33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 3333333
Heisuke Uchiha looked rather ill as he sat down at the table on Sunday night.
“Is something wrong, dear?” Keiko asked brightly, passing the mashed potatoes down the long table to Sasuke, who wasn't very hungry.
“Oh, those pills Dr. Tanaka prescribed me for my muscle pain are missing. They've been missing for a while, too,” he grumbled, stabbing his steak with his fork, a look of anger on his face.
“Why don't you go back to the doctor tomorrow morning? Take one of those vacation days you've been saving up!”
“You know I hate going to the doctor.”
“Of course you do, dear.”
The conversation spiraled down Sasuke's thoughts. He stared at Itachi's blank face.
`…Missing…?'
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 99999999
“How is it MONDAY again?” Naruto moaned into his sandwich. “I want to barf…”
“In that case, give me back my sandwich!”
“Oh… this is YOUR sandwich, Sasuke-bastard?”
“… Naruto, give him his sandwich,” Neji said softly, his hand supporting his drooping head. Naruto sighed angrily, and shoved the sandwich back across the table.
“What's with you?” Sasuke asked, picking up the sandwich, and tearing off a chunk around where Naruto had bitten.
“Nothing… I'm just…” Neji sighed softly, and shook his head. “My uncle's just being a real bastard right now… says he didn't know I was even GOING to the football game, so how could he pick me up? He fucking FORGOT about me, and all he can whine about is how he CLAIMS he didn't know I was going. God dammit…” He out his head down on his arms. “Why is my family nothing but bitches?”
“Hey, Hinata's not a bitch!” Ten-Ten protested, socking the smaller girl in the arm. “C'mon, Hina, hold your own!”
“Yeah!” Kiba agreed, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Hinata just shook her head.
“D-Dad was r-r-really m-mad at Neji wh-when he c-came home s-suh-so late, and h-he yelled at N-Neji for a luh-long time.” She licked her lips. “I d-don't blame N-Neji f-for being angry.”
“THANK you,” Neji said exasperatedly, shaking his head.
Haku blinked.
“So… he says he didn't know you were going?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you firmly told him that you were going?”
“Yes.”
“…That's really… odd.”
“No kidding.” Neji sat up, swung his legs over the side of the bench, and stood. “I need some air… I'll see you guys later.”
Kankuro blinked, and stared over at Naruto.
“…What?” the blonde asked.
“Are you gonna follow him?”
“Should I?”
“I thought you two were together now.”
“WHAT? NARUTO AND NEJI ARE- mmph!” Ten-Ten squeaked, before Sasuke reached over and covered her mouth with his hand.
“You want them to get lynched?” Kiba hissed.
“Sorry. Naruto and Neji are a couple?” Ten-Ten said, her voice hushed.
“Well… yeah,” Naruto said, seeing the stares the people at the table were sending him. Gaara shook his head.
“It really isn't that big of a deal,” he said icily, glaring at everyone. “So they're together. So what?”
Naruto sent him a grin of thanks, and stood up.
“Yeah… guess I should follow him…” he said, before leaving the cafeteria.
666666666666666666666666666
“Surprise!” Yashamaru cried, bursting into Iruka's classroom, holding a newspaper and a shopping bag. Iruka looked up from his computer screen, his eyes wide.
“Oh! Hey!” he said, standing. “What are you doing here?”
“Bringing you lunch, Yashamaru said, leaning over the desk and kissing Iruka on the lips. “And I wanted your opinion on something.” He dropped the shopping bag on the desk.
“O…kay…” Iruka stammered. Yashamaru dragged a desk up to the front, and sat cross-legged on it, the newspaper spread out across his knees, open to the Classifieds section.
“There's some Chinese in the bag… I was in a hurry. I forgot what time you had lunch!” Yashamaru laughed, puling a highlighter out of his pocket, and dragging it across a line of print.
“Uh… right,” Iruka said. He reached into the bag, and pulled out several Styrofoam boxes, and two sets of chopsticks. “Er…”
“There's forks in there too, Silly!” Yashamaru laughed, bemusedly.
“Okay. I knew that. Uh… what's with the newspaper…?” Iruka asked, unsealing one of the boxes.
“Well…” Yashamaru said, sitting up straighter. “I have decided to move into Konohaton!”
Iruka's eyes widened.
“Really? That's GREAT!” he said. “That's fantastic news!”
“Thanks,” Yashamaru said, turning pink. “If I move into town now, I'll be closer to the university, and I won't have to drive there everyday. And there'll be more clientele for my cleaning business,” he said with a small laugh.
“So… are you looking for an apartment?” Iruka asked, clumsily shoving rice into his mouth with the chopsticks, then shaking his head and picking up the fork.
“Yep! I was wondering whether or not try and find one with a roommate… what do you think?”
“Well, roommates are always good to have for splitting rent money… but it really depends on the person.” Iruka shrugged.
“See, here's one… `Two bedroom apartment, non-smoker… Devil worshippers and Portuguese okay.'” He nodded, then frowned. “Oh, ground floor…”
Iruka snickered.
“Okay… what about this one…”
88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 888888888888
Naruto found Neji at the back of the building. He was sitting down, his back against the bricks, and his eyes cloudy. He reached into his pocket, and brought out a lighter and a cigarette. He held them in shaking hands as he lit them, then took in a long drag, and gently breathing out the smoke.
Naruto sighed softly, and shook his head. It seemed then that Neji snapped out of his trance.
“Oh, what am I doing?” he muttered, stabbing out the cigarette on the concrete, and standing. “I thought I was supposed to QUIT smoking, not start again…” He rubbed his eyes and leaned against the wall. “Dammit.”
Naruto decided it was time to intervene.
“Neji! Neji are you back here?” he called, before hopping around the corner. “THERE you are!” he said cheerily. A little TOO cheerily.
“…You didn't try Prozac, did you?”
“Whatever do you mean?” Naruto guffawed, one hand behind his head. “I was just worried, and came lookin' for ya. No big.”
Neji blinked slowly, then shook his head, his face cracking into a grin. Naruto laughed, then leaned against the wall.
“So… what's wrong?”
Neji frowned, and shrugged. He didn't say anything though, just stared blankly out at the field. Naruto nodded.
“Oh. Sounds troublesome. I learned that word from Shikamaru. He says it a lot. Do you like Shikamaru? I don't mean like THAT, but I mean, you know, as a friend. He's weird, I think, with the spiky ponytail. How do you GET your hair up like that, anyway? How much gel do you think he uses? I think-“
“Naruto.”
“Yes?”
“Shut up.”
“EH?”
`Oh God…' Naruto thought. `Last time he said that, we-`
Suddenly, Neji cut off Naruto's thoughts with a deep kiss. Neji tasted like cigarettes… For some reason, the taste brought up a strange nostalgic feeling in Naruto's chest. All of the sudden, he felt like crying. He pushed Neji away, and sank down so he was sitting, his hand on his head.
“What? What is it?” Neji asked. “There's no way THAT was too much…”
“You… you taste like… tobacco…”
“…Oh…?”
“I don't know! I feel really weird now, like really sad, and I don't know why!” Naruto cried, rubbing his eyes.
Neji frowned, and sat down next to Naruto.
“…Strange,” Neji said softly, wrapping an arm around the distressed blonde's shoulders. Naruto leaned into the half embrace, his face in his hands. “Very… strange.”
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
“Itachi… Itachi, you okay?” Haku asked, looking up from the paper he was holding, and frowning. Itachi was leaning against his locker, his face a mix of nerves and sickness.
“Hm?” He looked up, all signs of anxiety gone from his face.
“Uh…” Haku blinked. “I don't… remember…” He frowned. “Damn… I don't remember! Augh! This is going to drive me nuts!”
“My locker's stuck,” Itachi said plaintively. “Good God… this is the third time the week…” He pulled at the door, but it failed to budge.
“Here, let me see,” Haku said, pressing Itachi out of the way, and setting down his things. He held the combination lock in one hand, and pounded twice on the door. It flew open, missing his nose by precious centimeters. But that was the least of Haku's problems. The moment he opened the door, an avalanche of books and papers spewed from within the locker, knocking the sophomore flat on his rear. He squeaked indignantly, his face red.
“Ah! Are you okay?” Itachi cried, dropping to his knees. Haku nodded, rubbing his sore head. Just then, he spied something among the mess… something small and orange… He grabbed in, and shoved it in his pocket when Itachi wasn't looking.
“Y-Yeah, I'm fine,” Haku said, waving a hand, and dragging himself to his feet. “Just… ow…”
“What the hell happened to my locker?” Itachi moaned. “Everything was in order when I left it a HALF HOUR AGO…!” He rubbed his eyes and sighed angrily.
“Do you think someone got into your locker?” Haku asked, blinking.
“I don't know. Maybe. Here… help me?”
“Sure.”
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 999999999999
Sasuke was in shock. Literally. This couldn't be right. There was no way! There must have been some mistake!
But there was no denying it. They had gotten their progress reports for every class in shop. His grades were listed:
Language Arts: A
Reading: A
P.E.: A
Advanced Algebra: A
Shop: A
Biology: C+
C+. C+. C+.
He was going to die. Sasuke had never gotten below an A in his life! He felt sick. How had he let his work slip so much…?
Of course. He had always been terrible at science. It was his hardest class. Math was his strong point, not science. But now this…
How would he be able to face Dad?
“Hey, Sasuke, how'd you do?” Gaara asked, sitting on the stool next to Sasuke. “Better than I did, probably,” he said, after a moment of silence. Sasuke just shook his head, and slid his grades over to the redhead, who passed his own across the table.
“God! I could NEVER do this good…” Gaara sighed, with a small smile. He was blushing. Sasuke's eyes strayed down to Gaara's grades.
Language Arts: A-
Reading: A
P.E.: D
Pre Algebra: C-
Shop: B+
Biology: D
“You saved me from failing science, you know,” Gaara said with a laugh. “You should see Naruto's grades… he did terrible…”
“I HEARD THAT!” Naruto snarled, waving his grades in the air. “For your INFORMATION, this is some of the BEST WORK I have EVER DONE!”
Language Arts: C+
Reading: B-
P.E.: A
Pre Algebra: D-
Shop: A
Biology: F
Sasuke blinked, and dropped his head into his hands.
“…What's your problem, Sasuke-bastard?”
Sasuke just shook his head. Naruto was quiet as he scanned Sasuke's grades over Gaara's shoulder.
“WHAAAAT? YOU'VE GOT ALMOST ALL A'S!” he cried, flailing.
“EXACTLY!” Sasuke snapped, slamming his hands on the table, and standing up so suddenly that he knocked his stool over. “ALMOST! I don't get ALMOST all A's! I get ALL A's! I CAN'T GET C'S! I CAN'T!” He was red in the face, and Naruto was worried that he might start crying.
“Woah… okay… sorry, Sasuke-bas… I mean, Sasuke.”
Sasuke shook his head, and, without another word, tore his grades back from Gaara, and stormed out of the shop. Gaara's mouth hung open for a moment, his eyes wide.
“…Woah…” Naruto said, rubbing his forehead. “What… was that all about?”
“I don't know,” Gaara said, shaking his head. “I have no idea.”
666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666 div>
“I need a job,” Kankuro moaned, stretching out as he re-read his grades. “B, C, B, D, C, and A. Jeez. Not bad… but not gonna get me into Harvard, either.”
Itachi was blankly scanning his own grades.
“Lemme guess. You got ALL A'S.”
“…How'd you know?” Itachi asked with a small smirk.
“Feh.”
“ALL RIGHT, YOUTHFUL FOLK OF DRAMA! ENOUGH CHIT CHAT! WE MUST ACT!”
“…The call of the wild,” Kankuro said, before everyone burst out laughing.
44444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444 4
The drive back from the school was dead silent. Kankuro was giving Gaara a ride. He would have offered to give `Ri one, but he knew better than to approach her during school hours.
As they pulled into the driveway, he began to feel odd. He knew that something was wrong… something was out of place.
“Hang on a sec, Gaara,” he said, putting a hand on the younger teen's shoulder as he started to open the car door. “Do you get the feeling… that something is… I dunno… wrong?”
Gaara frowned, and shook his head.
“No… are you sick or stoned or something, Kankuro?”
“Oh, bite me.”
Gaara rolled his eyes, and kicked open the door. “Come on, Mr. Psychic. I'm thirsty.”
“Yeah, yeah, all right,” Kankuro said, shrugging, and stepping out of the car. “I'm probably just tired.” He led Gaara up the front step, and over the threshold. They paused to pull off their shoes. Gaara had to sit down to undo the laces on his converse, but Kankuro slid out of his easily.
“Heh heh… Kankuro wins again!” he said, punching the air with gusto, and walking down the hall towards the kitchen. “You've got to get some new shoes, Gaara…” He trailed off, his eyes widening as he stepped into the kitchen, seeing who was sitting at the table.
“D…D…Dad?”
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999< /div>
…WTF?
Kat: Hmmm… I think that's a good place to stop. I was going to go on, but it's just so much fun to leave you all hanging. -cackles- Please review! The more reviews I get, the faster I update! La la la...
Oh… the plus and minus signs on the grades may not show. If they don't, just check out my MediaMiner account… they should show there.
Toodles!