Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Help Me To Remember ❯ Familiarity ( Chapter 4 )

I own nothing.

 

Familiarity (n) the state of being familiar; a close acquaintance

 

Sasuke knocked his head against the wall. Repeatedly.

 

When the hell did this happen?! He snarled and whacked himself a few more times until he had to stop because his head was spinning so much that he couldn't find the wall to knock his head against it anymore.

 

I'm asexual! Asexual! Asexual as in unaffected by sexuality! Asexual as in not sexual at all! End of!

 

His eyes managed to stop spinning enough and found the wall, where he promptly cracked his head against it again. He stumbled back, rubbing the bump on his forehead and staggered backwards into the opposite wall, sliding to the floor.

 

“DAMMIT!” he yelled and smashed his fist into the wall next to him.

 

Flashback

 

Sasuke stumbled down the stairs at five in the morning. He'd forgotten to shut his window last night and the damn birds had woken him up at the ungodly hour of three in the morning. He smirked, he was pretty sure that he had hit at least two of them with those books, maybe more, and that helped to lessen the anger.

 

The part that strengthened the anger ten-fold was the part that was furious because he'd been lying in bed for the last two hours and hadn't fallen back asleep.

 

His arm braced him against the doorway so as not to fall as he walked into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes viciously.

 

“Oh, what are you doing up?”

 

Sasuke looked at the table to the voice and found Naruto staring at him, a few loose papers, six empty containers and one half full container of ramen scattered in front of him on the table. He was rubbing that armband of his again.

 

Sasuke blinked. He knew that Naruto was a morning person, but for anyone to be up and fully awake at this hour was nothing but insane.

 

Naruto glanced down. “And should you really be on that ankle? It looks painful.”

 

Sasuke looked down and swore. His ankle was even more swollen than yesterday. “I'm fine.” He snapped, yanking the fridge open and searching through all the packages of instant ramen for something besides that that was edible.

 

“You sure? You're limping.” Naruto noted, poking Sasuke's spine and making him jump.

 

How did he do that? Naruto had come out of nowhere, Sasuke hadn't even heard or sensed him get up from the table.

 

“You hungry?” Naruto asked. “I'm really in the mood for some onigiri. Hinata left some salmon over here from the meeting last night. Speaking of which, why weren't you there?” Naruto turned to him.

 

Sasuke's brow furrowed. Naruto's expression might have been that of curiosity, but his sky blue eyes were splashed with worry.

 

Since when does the idiot care about me?

 

He decided to skip the question, not wanting to explain that he had taken cold meds that same day and he'd been extra drowsy, because then he'd have to try and explain that he took them to have more of that dream again, and had gotten it when he was awake, adding to his drowsiness.

 

“Onigiri? Not ramen?” Sasuke veered sharply away from the topic, hoping Naruto wouldn't notice.

 

“I've already eaten my fill this morning, and Hinata's salmon is the best!” Naruto crowed, Sasuke sighed, of course Naruto wouldn't notice, he was an idiot.

 

Naruto leaned around Sasuke, his elbow brushing very close to Sasuke's… lower regions as he fished for the salmon. Sasuke bit back a gasp at the sudden touch. Naruto had come out of nowhere again, and Sasuke couldn't move now or he would bump into Naruto again. He wasn't sure he would be able to hold back the next gasp. That first touch had been filled with something so deep and powerful that it almost scared him.

 

“He it is!” Naruto smiled widely, pulling away from Sasuke and holding out the salmon like a trophy. Sasuke rolled his eyes; even at five in the morning, Naruto still managed to be his insane, unpredictable, hyperactive, knuckle-headed self.

 

Naruto gulped down a piece of salmon noisily, and as Sasuke open his mouth to tell Naruto to shut up so as not to wake Gaara for the sake of everyone living, Naruto's fingers grabbed another small piece of salmon and slipped it between his lips.

 

Sasuke's reaction of shock caused his mouth to snap shut and he faltered as Naruto watched him for a reaction, so Sasuke chewed, swallowed, and cuffed Naruto upside the head as he stomped away.

 

“OW! Bastard! You could've just said that you don't like salmon!” Naruto nursed his temple, setting the container of fish on the counter.

 

It wasn't the salmon, idiot. Sasuke breathed heavily, sitting down at the table, trying to act as calmly as he could despite his hammering heart in his chest.

 

“Jeez.” Naruto mumbled, pulling the rice from the fridge before he closed the door with his foot. “Why did you fall anyways? Even in the obstacle courses in gym, you never even trip on the balance beams, let alone keel over off the top of a latter and land on your head.”

 

The crease in Sasuke's brow furrowed more as Sasuke remembered Hinata's words, “A-and, um… N-Naruto was… w-worried… a-about you. Y-you should t-tell him… that y-you're not hurt.”

 

He shook his head. “I had this sort of… I wasn't paying attention. And I'm fine.” He repeated, gently so as not to get Naruto in a yelling tirade. The last thing he needed right now was a ticked off Gaara. “Do you always get up this early?” he steered away from the subject again.

 

“On weekdays I get up at four, I sleep in to five on the weekends, but today I couldn't fall back asleep again. I woke up at three from a nightmare.” Naruto explained as he sat down, dumping his food on the table as he rolled his onigiri.

 

“Nightmare?” Sasuke repeated, standing to fix himself some tea.

 

“It's nothing, just… memories.” Naruto said a little too quickly, a sad smile playing briefly across his face.

 

“Hn.” Sasuke mumbled and abandoned the tea on the counter. “Whatever, I'm going to try and sleep some more.” He started for the door.

 

“Sasuke.”

 

Sasuke jumped again at the hot breath on the back of his neck.

 

“How do you do that?” he breathed. “Come out of nowhere like that?”

 

Naruto laughed darkly. “Try to remember.” He whispered, and then he did something Sasuke never thought anyone but his fan girls would have done to him, Naruto brushed his lips against the side of Sasuke's neck.

 

Sasuke's eyes shot open and he whirled, his black, shocked eyes locking with blue.

 

“I'm glad you're ok.” Naruto smiled before ducking into his room and closing the door.

 

Sasuke shivered at the feel of those blazing lips on his neck, and brought his hand up to cover it. Naruto's eyes… he'd plastered on a happy face, but his eyes were filled with… remorse, a longing for something.

 

And that blue, and that color of citrine… Sasuke figured out why he'd kissed Naruto that day. The hair and the eyes, he looked so much like the man from his dreams, the one Sasuka was madly in love with, and though those feelings had been strong in his dream, they were nothing compared to what he had felt deep in his heart just then.

 

“Why?” he whispered. Fate hated him. Fate truly hated him.

 

End Flashback

 

Asexual. Sasuke snorted. Not anymore.

 

No wonder girls had never turned him on, but why, why, WHY did he have to fall in love with Naruto Uzumaki of all people?! Sasuke forced himself to his feet, ignoring how much he wobbled. Maybe he was more like Itachi then he thought.

 

He had to fall in love with one of the straightest people on the planet, yeah, that would happen to him. Parents die, brother sends you away, and to top it off, you fall for someone of the opposite gender who's as straight as a 180-degree angle.

 

A nagging voice in the back of the head poked him. “Then why did he kiss you?”

 

It wasn't a kiss, he was laughing, he was just trying to make me jump. Sasuke shot back.

 

“Ah, sweet denial.”

 

I'm not denying anything!

 

“Really.” He didn't believe himself, now that was pathetic.

 

He's been after Sakura since before I got here. He spat, and didn't have a retort for himself to that.

 

He's always trying to take her out and never cares when she hits him! That says something considering how hard she hits!

 

“Are you trying to hurt yourself?”

 

He stopped. The voice was right, it was painful to think about that. He smacked his head, making himself wobble more. I have to stop talking to myself.

 

The Day of the Party

 

Sasuke had skipped class that day. No, you don't need your ears cleaned. He met up with Shikamaru (who always skipped Fridays) and Kiba (who had skipped that day for the hell of it) at the beginning of the day and spent the day running from about a million and one girls all hunting him down to ask him to the Christmas Party.

 

“This is so troublesome.” Shikamaru rolled his eyes, managing to get to the top branch just as the horde of ten or fifteen girls went thundering by underneath them, yelling for Sasuke to wait.

 

“I think it's fun!” Kiba laughed, giving Shikamaru a hand up to the branch he was on. “Way better than PE any day!”

 

“That's only because Gai is ten times more troublesome than them.” Shikamaru looked back down at another mob of girls careened after the first group.

 

Sasuke waited until he couldn't hear the girls anymore before starting down.

 

“You'd better wait.” Shikamaru interrupted him. “In the most probable case, they'll double back in a few minutes to see if you ran back this way, we should wait and go the opposite direction after they've gone back.”

 

And sure enough, exactly three minutes later, the pack of thirty girls came rocketing back the way they came, screaming about Sasuke heading back to the dorms. Shikamaru sighed, rolling his eyes again as he started back down. Incoherent mutterings of “troublesome” and “moronically predictable” could be heard under his breath.

 

“Shikamaru, do you think Kyuubi's going to show this year?” Kiba asked his friend, jumping the last few branches down to the ground.

 

“I don't know, you and Gaara are the only ones outside of the Uzumaki family that know her.”

 

“Then probably not.” Kiba mussed his hair with his hand, sighing. “Naruto's going to go crazy if she doesn't though. They haven't seen each other for… six years now.”

 

“Kyuubi?” Sasuke repeated, slipping his hands into his pockets, trying to keep his face from flaring up at the mention of Naruto. It was surprisingly difficult, considering how easily he usually kept his face stolid.

 

“Naruto's older sister.” Kiba explained.

 

“He has a sister?”

 

“Iruka's his guardian because Kyuubi's always away.” Shikamaru explained, knowing the reason behind his questioning immediately. “And Kiba's almost right, but they haven't seen each other in five years, not six.”

 

Sasuke nodded thoughtfully, remembering the picture of Naruto when he was six clinging to the back of a girl with bright red hair, about fourteen or so. Naruto was beaming in the picture, and although the girl looked sincerely annoyed, an amused smirk decorated her expression.

 

“Whatever.” Kiba scoffed, not liking being corrected. “Anyone else hungry? I'm going to the cafeteria.”

 

“Sure.” Shikamaru sighed, following Kiba for a few steps before turning back to Sasuke. “You coming?” he asked, trying to use as little words as possible.

 

“Not hungry, sorry about the girl trouble.” Sasuke muttered, walking in the other direction. His mind was being flooded with everything to do with a certain blonde idiot, and he didn't feel like being around anyone else right now.

 

His attention perked up to the sound of someone crying. The high voice meant that it was a girl. His eyes scanned the forest, and then the deserted road, coming to rest on someone curled up at the edge of the frozen river under the bridge.

 

Sasuke's brow furrowed as he continued to stare at her. That golden hair… Naruto?

 

His feet started carrying him across the road and the closer he got, the more the idea of the girl being Naruto got ridiculous, but her hair color… Sasuke had never seen anyone with that same hair color.

 

“Hey.” He said, standing over the person.

 

They stiffened, and looked up.

 

Sasuke smacked himself mentally. Of course it wasn't Naruto. The girl's hair had looked short from across the road, but that was because she had it pulled up in two high pigtails and had pulled it over her shoulders. It actually looked to be about down to her waists. She sniffed again and looked back at the ground, liquid diamonds leaking from her azure eyes as she hugged her knees closer to her chest.

 

“Hey what?” she returned, her voice waterlogged. She was wearing a black and orange jacket, orange jeans and black sneakers; though where she got the orange jeans, Sasuke had no idea.

 

Sasuke didn't know what made him sit down, whether it was her looks being so much like Naruto's—she even had the same whisker marks on her cheeks—or the warm feeling of immense familiarity she gave him, but whatever it was, he did sit, her eyes following him the entire way down.

 

“What do you want?” she let her head drop hopelessly back into her knees, new sobs racking her beautiful, well-defined shoulders.

 

“… Thought you were someone else.” He said finally.

 

“Then why are you still here Sasuke?” she asked around her knees.

 

“How did you know my name?” he demanded, sitting up. He was sure he'd ever seen this girl before, he wouldn't be able to forget someone with his hair color, how did she know who he was?

 

She stiffened again, but quickly composed herself. “My uncle works here, it's kind of hard not to know the great Sasuke Uchiha, the boy that every girl wants.”

 

Sasuke was shocked at the incredible hatred that had lined her voice on that last part of what she said, but didn't pry. Does she like me too? Then why isn't she jumping all over me right now instead of crying?

 

“He teaches here?”

 

“Uh… yeah.” She answered a little too slowly, lifting her head out of her knees. “He works here.”

 

“And you're here to…?” he asked, relaxing again.

 

“… Visiting.” She said finally. “Iruka Umino is my uncle.”

 

“THERE HE IS!”

 

Sasuke and the girl whirled to the screech and Sasuke winced visibly when he realized his fan club had discovered his whereabouts and were all presently charging him. The girl whirled and scuttled backwards towards the water at the frightening numbers.

 

Screams of “Sasuke!” bombarded them and the girl was almost trampled when the fan girls all clambered to be the first to ask him to the dance, a few even grabbed his hands and tried to pull him towards the school.

 

“Sasuke!” Ino and Sakura jumped on him, pleading for him to go with them. They all wanted to see Sasuke in a tux, and would give an arm to do so.

 

The girl backed away from the throng, turning slowly, and Sasuke saw her sapphire eyes fill up again with tears that refused to spill over. It hurt, to see her sad; he didn't know why, but it was actually physically painful in his chest.

 

“I'm not going with any of you!” he shouted, causing the girls to momentarily halt.

 

“Why not?!” they blubbered. “It'll be so much fun!”

 

Ugh, anything to make them shut up! “I'm already going with someone!”

 

Silence.

 

It had been a lie, he would never go to the stupid party, but he was still stunned by the instantaneous reaction.

 

I'll have to remember that. He thought dryly.

 

And then small footsteps could be heard as the girl continued to walk the opposite direction. Sasuke wanted to yell for her to wait, because the feeling of dread that she was going to disappear and never be seen again was overwhelming, but being an Uchiha forbade yelling for those reasons, so he didn't.

 

And then thirty pairs of eyes followed his gaze, resting on the back of the girl.

 

“He was sitting with her!”

 

“Is it her?”

 

“You're going with her?!”

 

“I'm much prettier!”

 

“Who do you think you are?!” Sakura barked, running in front of the girl and jabbing her finger into her chest, causing the girl to stagger backwards.

 

“I-I'm---” she stuttered.

 

“You think you can just walk in and take Sasuke away?!” Sakura yelled.

 

The girl tripped at the force of the yell and scooted backwards, heading right for Sasuke.

 

He put his hand up quickly to stop her from backing up right into his lap—she looked a little too much like Naruto, and considering how his body had reacted to Naruto's elbow brushing against his thigh, he didn't want to see how it would react with a Naruto look-a-like sitting between his knees—but to the other girls, it apparently looked as though he was putting a protective hand on her shoulder, and many gasps silenced the area again.

 

“Who are you anyway?!” Ino yelled accusingly. “I've never seen you before!”

 

“Wait!” Sakura stepped around Ino. “She looks like…Naruto!” she screamed furiously and grabbed one of the girl's pigtails, wrenching upwards.

 

Then she is Naruto? Sasuke's shock splayed in his eyes, but disappeared immediately when the girl's hair didn't fall off of her head. The girl cried out and clutched at the sides of her pigtail, and Sakura let go in shock as she realized it wasn't a wig.

 

“Sasuke, you're really going with her?” a girl that Sasuke was sure he'd never seen before stepped forward.

 

Anything to make them shut up. he repeated to himself as he gritted his teeth, and nodded.

 

The girl's shocked eyes turned to face him, the tears in her eyes finally spilling over. Sasuke considered wiping them away to really ham up the performance, but decided against it; he didn't need another fan girl, and this one seemed to not be pining over him like a love-struck schoolgirl.

 

“How do you know Sasuke?” Ino ground out bitterly, her hands clenched at her sides.

 

“I-I'm… an old friend.” The girl said quietly, shrinking down lower to get away from the thirty pairs of glaring eyes.

 

Sasuke sighed. At least she's going along with it, but what about the dance later? Should I just skip?

 

“I think he's lying.” A girl said after a while. “I think that he's saying that he's going with her to hide the fact that he secretly wants to go with me!” she yelled proudly.

 

Sasuke had to refrain from letting his head drop to the side. No wonder girls never turned him on, they were so unbelievably stupid.

 

“He wants to go with me you idiot!”

 

“No, he wants to go with me!”

 

“No me!”

 

“Me!”

 

Sasuke fought to not roll his eyes. Idiot girls.

 

“Here's how we'll decide!” Ino shouted, she and Sakura had been discussing it to themselves and had come up with a plan.

 

“Everyone go to the dance, and everyone asks Sasuke to dance twice, whoever he chooses to dance with is the one he likes!”

 

“I like that!”

 

Choruses of agreement were heard as the girls walked away, discussing their dresses and how they were going to ask Sasuke.

 

The girl trembled once more before standing and brushing herself off.

 

“I suppose I should ask your name.” Sasuke stood next to her, slipping his hands into his pockets.

 

“Oh, it's… uh…um, Naruka.” She nodded, wiping the remnants of her tears away with her sleeve. “Yeah, Naruka.”

 

It was nagging him again, that voice, it---he was desperate to know why she was crying.

 

“Ask her!” it demanded.

 

Shut up! Why the hell is she so different from any other girl anyway?

 

“You know that.” It chided.

 

If I did I wouldn't be asking you! He snapped harshly. I thought I wasn't going to talk to myself anymore.

 

“Yes you do know it. It's just buried deep, you have to keep looking. Nothing comes easily. Now ask her!”

 

Sasuke looked back over to see that more tears had pooled in her sky blue eyes.

 

Isn't she out of tears yet?

 

“Dammit, ask her!”

 

Not until you tell me why it's so important!

 

“You know that!” the voice barked, getting more aggravated by the second. “You think it'll just walk up to your doorstep and ring the bell? You have to work to remember it, I'm not going to tell you, now ask her!”

 

Alright, fine, just shut up!

 

“Why were you crying anyway?” he ground out. She shook her head furiously, but the tears spilled over despite her denial.

 

“Comfort her! You spent enough time making her comfort you, now repay the favor!”

 

She…?

 

“That's the only hint I'm giving you, it's all right in front of you, just piece it together.”

 

“Well, if you want to talk about it…” he muttered, his fists clenching in his pockets.

 

Naruka sniffed before looking at the sky where the moon was peaking over the horizon. “Have you ever fallen in love?”

 

Oh brother. “No.” he said curtly, though he knew he was lying, and images of Naruto were shooting across his vision.

 

She nodded, biting her lip, but forcing a smile. “Good, don't fall in love,” her shoulders trembled as she drew in a violently shuddering breath, “it's so painful, it's almost not worth it. He's never going to see me like that again.” She stopped walking, wiping her eyes furiously, but where ever she wiped tears away, new ones immediately replaced them.

 

“Again?” Sasuke repeated.

 

“……We used to be---” Naruka's voice cracked and she didn't finish the sentence. “But he'd never going to see me like that again. Ugh, this is so embarrassing!” she yelled out, using both of her palms to furiously rub away her tears. “I haven't cried in years, my head is killing me!!” she clutched at her temples, biting her lip so hard it was bleeding.

 

“Stop biting your lip… unless you want to chew through it.” Sasuke snapped, but she didn't move her teeth from her flesh, and even bit harder.

 

Sasuke sighed, and almost stepped over to forcibly pull her lip from her teeth (though he still had no reason to why he had the feeling of protection for her), when she sank down into a crouch, covering her eyes with her arm because she couldn't stop crying.

 

Sasuke's heart wrenched, and his hand shot to his chest and fisted his shirt. He'd never felt anything like that before, and it was almost as painful as seeing her walk away was.

 

He crouched down beside her, looking away and sighing. If I go with this girl to the dance, then the other morons will leave me alone, and she obviously likes someone else…

 

He looked over at her, and that same feeling of familiarity and warmth spread over him. Just like he didn't know why he sat down by her earlier by the river, he wouldn't have been able to explain why his hand had reached up and touched her shoulder.

 

His hand on her shoulder, it felt so… natural, and she had only flinched at the unexpected touch, but didn't seem to mind.

 

`You spent enough time making her comfort you, now repay the favor!' What did that mean? I know I've never seen her before.

 

His brow furrowed. Then why is she so familiar?

 

His hand traced circles on her back, and all at once, he pulled her closer into his chest and tucked her head under his chin.

 

She gasped, and instinctively grasped his shirt so as not to fall over, freezing at the sudden contact.

 

Sasuke gritted his teeth, hoping that she didn't freak out. Naruka felt so right against him and in his arms, that even though he would never admit it, even to himself, he was praying that she wouldn't reject him.

 

And then she was sobbing uncontrollably, and flung her hands around his neck and collapsed against him, making him fall backwards off his toes into a cross-legged position. She was soaking his shirt, and the wailing in his ears was almost deafening, but for some reason, he didn't care, and the hand on her back continued to trace light patterns.

 

When her sobbing had finally subsided to muffled hiccupping a few minutes later, he looked up at the moon and guessed it to be around six o'clock.

 

The dance starts at eight, so…

 

“Naruka?”

 

She nodded, letting the hands around his neck fall to her sides as she stared at the ground.

 

“About the dace tonight---”

 

“I know that was a cover up.” she cut him off, another forced smile on her face. “I could easily see that you didn't want to go with them, you don't have to explain.”

 

“Actually, they're going to be after me at the dance unless I go with someone, I was wondering if you could continue the act for tonight and go with me.”

 

She stiffened noticeably against him. “I…”

 

Again, Sasuke felt the dread that she was going to refuse, but she tucked her head back into his neck and nodded slowly. He felt himself sigh. What was it about this girl that was so… necessary for him? And why?