Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ From Here to Eternity ❯ Girls' Bathrooms, and ...Transsexuals?! ( Chapter 36 )

 

Haku kept his pace slow and even as he headed towards the bathroom. His eyes watched the floor, and he counted how many linoleum tiles he stepped over.

 

`Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine…'

 

“Hey, it's the fagola!”

 

Shit. Oh, oh, OH shit.

 

Shisui Uchiha swaggered over, flanked by his cronies. Today, his pick was Zaku, Dosu, Kidomaru and Kin.

 

Typical. Not an adult in sight.

 

“What's wrong, Queer-Boy? Lose your boyfriend?” Shisui asked, his voice a high, mocking tone. Haku flinched, the words hitting home.

 

Then Kin's voice sliced through the air. “Oh, Shisui, I think you're RIGHT! I think he DID lose his boyfriend!”

 

Their laughter was probably what finally drove Haku over the edge. High laughter that pierced his eardrums and his mind and his heart.

 

“SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP, OKAY?” he screeched, his voice cracking. The five silenced immediately, but only from shock. Haku grabbed handfuls of his own hair, and pulled. “I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE LOW BLOWS, INSULTS, OR NAMES! JUST LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!”

 

Then he turned on his heel, and ran. And he didn't stop running until he skidded into the end stall in the bathroom.

 

He dropped the toilet lid down, and sat, using it as a chair. He dropped his face into his hands, and forced his breathing to calm.

 

`Oh shit Shisui is gonna kill me he's gonna kill me dead and then I'll never be able to apologize to Zabuza oh I feel so terrible oh God oh God,' he thought, the words blending together into some sick mess.

 

Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

 

He sniffed, feeling tears coming, but he forced them down. There was no WAY, no way in HELL that he was going to start crying now. He wasn't a baby! He didn't just CRY at any given moment! No siree, not him!

 

He rubbed his eyes furiously, and sniffed again.

 

He wasn't crying. He was just… sweating. And, and his allergies were acting up. Yeah, that's it.

 

Suddenly, a high voice demanded, “Hey! Who the hell's in here? Come out before I kick your ass!”

 

Haku's eyes burst open, and his heart leapt to his throat.

 

That sure as hell hadn't been a male voice.

 

He drew his feet up, and made sure the door was locked. `Oh no. Oh… NO. I must've gone into the girls' bathroom by mistake! Oh… shit.'

 

He spent the next few minutes praying. There were slow footsteps coming down the hall, and he could hear the creaking of stall doors being opened.

 

A shadow passed into the front of his door. He held his breath.

 

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

 

“HEY! Who's in there?” the girl snapped. “Come out! Tayuya, is that you? Are you trying to scare me?”

 

`Tayuya…? Oh!' Relief flooded his system. He put his feet on the ground. `It's just Ten-Ten… I hope…'

 

Ten-Ten's face contorted oddly as Haku pushed open the door. “Oh my God… Haku, are you okay?”

 

Haku nodded, rubbing his eyes, and sniffing. “I'm fine, Ten-Ten, just great. How are you?”

 

“What the HELL are you doing in the girls' bathroom?” Ten-Ten asked, rudely ignoring his last question. Then she paled. “Unless… Oh…”

 

Haku blinked. “What? What is it?”

 

“Are you… uh… well…” She turned slightly red, then bent over, and said in a low voice, “You aren't a transsexual, are you?” Then she straightened up. “Because, I mean, if you are, that's just fine! No worries, man. I mean, girl. I mean-“

 

“Ten-Ten, it's okay,” Haku said, brushing past, her, and walking out to the sink. “I'm not a transsexual. I just came in here by mistake.” He turned on the water, pulled down a handful of paper towels, and got them wet. “And even if I was, I wouldn't be dumb enough to come in here.” He pressed the wet towel to his face, feeling his chest clench with the sudden coldness against his forehead and cheeks.

 

“Oh, well, that's… good,” she said, slightly unsure of how to reply. She shuffled her feet uneasily, then said, “Well, yeah, take your time. Don't worry about any girls coming in or anything.” Then she coughed. “No one uses this bathroom, anyway.”

 

It was true. The bathroom was down past the library, another place hardly anyone went, so it was practically unnoticeable. Haku shook his head, and sighed.

 

“I just… Mmm.” He rubbed his eyes again, and tossed the towel into the trashcan. “Never mind.”

 

“You can tell me, Haku,” Ten-Ten said, offering him a small smile. “I know how to keep silent.”

 

Haku returned the smile, but his was quite tiny, almost invisible. “Yeah. Thanks, Ten-Ten. I'll remember that.”

 

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Kankuro's eyes were straight ahead, his lips pursed. He was angry, angrier than he had been in quite a while. He slid in between a group of sophomores wearing clothes that just SCREAMED `Hot Topic', and narrowly avoided being smushed by a group of football players who weren't Shisui's groupies. He kept his eyes on the back of Zabuza's head, attempting to quell the nervousness that was flurrying up in his ribcage.

 

He passed the snack machines, keeping his sights on the shaggy crew cut bobbing just a few yards ahead of him. He was praying, now, to any God listening that Zabuza wouldn't pound him into Tapioca pudding when the oboe-player stuck his nose where it didn't belong.

 

Kankuro was close to the bulky junior, close enough to reach out and grab him by the back of the shirt. Which he would do in three… two…

 

He reached out a hand.

 

One…

 

“Kankuro!”

 

Fuck.

 

He stopped short, almost falling over. His hand dropped, and he spun around, searching for the voice.

 

“Ohuh?” A familiar flash of bright red appeared below his sight line. He looked down. “What is it, Gaara?”

 

“You haven't seen Naruto yet today, have you?” Gaara asked, his voice barely dancing above monotonous. “I can't seem to find him.”

 

Kankuro shook his head. “Nope. Uh… did you check the gym? Or maybe the cafeteria?”

 

Gaara nodded, closing his dark-lined eyes, and sighing. “Damn it,” he cursed. “Thanks anyway, Kankuro. See you later.”

 

“Yeah. Later.”

 

Gaara shuffled away, his dark clothes causing him to blend perfectly with half of the other students, but his bright red hair sticking out like a sore thumb. Kankuro turned back to look for Zabuza, but he had already disappeared.

 

“Shit,” Kankuro hissed, viciously scuffing at the ground with his shoe. He was gaining the irate stares of a few teachers, so he thought it best to scurry along against the wall. He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, and scowled.

 

Perhaps this was a sign. A sign that he shouldn't meddle in Haku and Zabuza's affairs.

 

`And I woulda gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddlin' kids,' his mind quoted, and he couldn't help but grin. The last time he had watched `Scooby-Doo' was… Christ… at least two years ago, right?

 

Besides… his `meddling' had gotten him into trouble in the past. Maybe all Haku and Zabuza needed was time.

 

`Fuck that!' he mentally screamed. `Your buddies need help!'

 

`No,' his logical side told him. `What they NEED is for you to butt out.'

 

Kankuro had no time to deliberate this further, however, for at that moment, the bell rang.

 

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“Where the FUCK are my goddamn sleeping pills?”

 

Deidara rolled over in bed, blocking out his mother's frantic shouts. Whenever she worked nights, things like this would happen. First her hairbrush, then her car keys, then her goddamn sleeping pills.

 

“In the medicine cabinet, Mom, yeah,” he called out, pulling the blanket over his head. He tried desperately to get back to sleep, but a moment later, he heard hysterical pounding on his door.

 

“GET THE FUCK OUT HERE YOU LAZY BASTARD!” Mom yelled, her open palm slapping the door. Deidara groaned, and slid out of bed. He caught sight of the clock. It was…

 

“SHIT!” he hissed, picking up the jeans he had worn yesterday, and pulling them on. It was almost eight o'clock already! He tugged down a blue tee shirt, and pulled open his door. “Mom, I-“

 

SLAP!

 

Deidara reeled backwards, mostly in shock, and brought a hand up to cover his face. “Ah!”

 

“Shut up,” Mom said, standing in the doorway. “Just shut UP you FILthy piece of TRASH!”

 

Nadia Hagen, as she was before she married Deidara's father, and was now that she was divorced, was a woman of average build, with long, wavy blond hair that hung almost to her waist. Her face was pale and

 

(hateful)

 

pretty, and though they were both blondes, they looked, really, nothing alike. Deidara looked more like his father, which was probably why Nadia took out most of her anger on him.

 

“WHERE ARE THEY?” Nadia demanded, punching the doorframe. Her small arms, which had been folding and lifting and washing laundry at the `McCoy Laundry Mat' downtown for the last seventeen

 

(sixteen and a half yup that's how old I am)

 

years, were very strong. Her slaps hurt. A lot.

 

“Th-They're in th-the cabinet, yeah” Deidara stammered, climbing to his feet, and stumbling out of his room to the bathroom. “Huh-here, Mom. Right here, yeah.” He pulled out the orange cylinder, and offered it to his mother, whose mood seemed to change immediately.

 

“Oh, thank you so much, Deidara!” she said, taking the container, and giving her son a hug. “I thought I'd never find these little bastards! My memory must be going, too!” Then she giggled, and popped three

 

(too much that's too much she's gonna kill herself someday ya know)

 

of the pills into her mouth, swallowing them dry. “I'm off to bed! Have a good day at school, dear!”

 

“I will… I will, yeah, yeah I will, yeah.” Deidara must have been nervous, he knew. Why else would he be stammering so much?

 

Then Nadia's dark blue eyes fell on his face.

 

“I can see it,” she said darkly. Deidara frowned.

 

“What? What is it?” he asked, turning to glance in the mirror.

 

“That thing. Cover it. Now,” Nadia snapped. Deidara noticed, then, that his blind eye was exposed.

 

“Oh, s-sorry, Mom, yeah,” he said, pushing his long bangs in front of the milk-white iris. “M-My fault, yeah.”

 

Nadia's face twisted with rage. “Don't let it happen again, dear,” she said, then she disappeared down the hall into her own bedroom. Deidara sighed, and leaned against the bathroom doorframe.

 

Then he remembered.

 

“Shit, I'm late!” he hissed. It was barely two minutes later that he was sprinting out into the front room, and picking up his bag. He opened the door, ran out into the hall, and-

 

THUMP!

 

“Oof!” he wheezed, his rear colliding uncomfortably with the floor. “Ow…” He blearily opened his eyes to see what he had run in too, but he had a feeling he already knew. “Good morning, Sasori, yeah!” he said with fictitious brightness. He forced on a smile, and clambered to his feet. “Late as well, I see, yeah?”

 

Sasori glared at the blonde, dragging himself to his feet. He bit his lip, then said with a slight air of mockery, “Yeah.”

 

Deidara grinned. “Yeah! Then we can walk to school together, yeah?”

 

Sasori raised an eyebrow.

 

“Whatever,” he grumbled.

 

Deidara's lips then began to hold themselves up… he didn't need to fake it.

 

“Yeah!” he said with a laugh, skipping after the taller teenager. “What a great way to start the day!”

 

“Deidara?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Shut up.”

 

“You got it, yeah!”

 

Deidara frowned, and bit his lip, careful not to make a sound as they rode the elevator down to the first floor, then stepped out the back door of the building into the alley. They walked out onto the sidewalk. It wasn't for another minute before Sasori finally spoke again.

 

“… You know what?” he said airily, his lips tracing what could almost have been defined as a smile.

 

“Yeah?” Deidara asked, hoping that this called for an embargo of the `No Talking' rule.

 

“You'd better go ahead and talk. The silence in getting on my nerves.”

 

“All right!”

 

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Basketball tryouts were today, and Sasuke felt as though his cold couldn't have picked a worse time to come along.

 

He sneezed into the tissue, then discarded it into the trashcan. His head ached, his throat was dry and scratchy, his nose was running, and he was so, so, SO tired he felt like he could just lay down and die and not have second thoughts about it. He rubbed his eyes, and dropped his head into his hands, his elbows resting against the bathroom counter.

 

It was just after lunch. Sasuke had made a quick exit just after the early bell rang.

 

Oh… his head was spinning and his stomach turned over. He pressed one hand to his mouth, and breathed in through his nose.

 

“Why hello dearest cousin!” said a voice from over his shoulder. He glanced back, to see Shisui walking up to the counter. He ran his hands under the hot water, then squirted some soap onto them. “Are YOU ready for basketball tonight?” he asked, his thin lips twisting into a grin. He rinsed his hands, then pulled down a paper towel, and dried them off. Sasuke tried to answer snidely, but was overcome with a coughing fit.

 

So, in the end, he settled for, “Shut the fuck up, Shisui.” Cough, cough, cough.

 

The fellow Uchiha's grin dropped a smidgen.

 

“Hey, you okay?” he asked, frowning, putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. The freshman irately flinched away from the junior's touch. Shisui put his hands in the air.

 

“Calm down, you drip,” he snapped, rolling his eyes. “I'm not here to molest you. Do I LOOK like a fag to you?”

 

Sasuke winced.

 

“What, like that ass bandit Haku? What's up with him, anyway? He looks like a fuckin' chick.” Shisui laughed at his own joke, which wasn't really a joke.

 

Sasuke was officially having a bad day.

 

“Don't say things like that, Shisui,” he snapped, glaring at his cousin. “Haku's a nice guy. You haven't even given him a chance.”

 

Shisui raised a brow.

 

“Don't tell me YOU'RE a fag now, TOO,” he grumbled, rolling his eyes. “Honestly.” He tossed his towel into the garbage. “I should tell you something, Sasuke,” he said, dropping his voice tone. “We've got a little something planned for the faggots at this school and it ain't pretty. I suggest you stop hangin' around with them, `relse people'll start to think you ARE one of `em.”

 

Then the older Uchiha left Sasuke to stew in his own confusion.

 

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Kat: -yawn- I'm tired. I'm so, SO tired. I'm falling asleep at the keyboard. Who wants to review and tell me how incredibly LUSCIOUS this chapter was, mm?