Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Help Me To Remember ❯ Masquerade ( Chapter 5 )

I don't own nothing but my ideas.

 

Masquerade (n) a party, dance, or other festive gathering of persons wearing masks and

other disguises, a costume or disguise worn at such a gathering

 

“What?!” Sasuke snapped at Kiba's aghast expression, the boy's jaw was on the floor for god's sake!

 

“Why are you here?” Kiba asked, tilting his head to the side. “Wasn't the point of avoiding everyone today so that you wouldn't have to come?”

 

“Hn.” Sasuke gritted his teeth, looking away, his hands in his tuxedo pockets.

 

It was unnerving, the way every girl besides Hinata and Tenten were gawking at him just because he was in a suit.

 

Idiots. Sasuke sniffed, looking around again. It was already eight ten. Ok, if she isn't here in the next two minutes, I'm leaving. He growled.

 

“Who are you here with anyway?” Shikamaru asked, flopped sideways in a chair, Choji was gobbling down the entire food table beside him.

 

“Hn.”

 

Kiba bent over to whisper in Kiba's ear. “He kissed Naruto, do you think they're here together?”

 

Sasuke twitched visibly, his fists clenching in his pockets. A few feet away, Sai also tensed, spiking Sasuke's curiosity.

 

“I don't know.” Shikamaru sighed loudly, running his hand over his high ponytail. “Is Naruto even here?”

 

“Now that you mention it, it is very quiet around here… Gaara, where's Naruto?” Kiba looked over his shoulder to the boy standing in the corner, his arms crossed tightly across his chest. It was clear that he didn't want to be there.

 

“Out. With Iruka.” Gaara muttered, turning everyone within a ten-foot radius of him into a block of ice.

 

“Figures he would want to spend tonight with someone basically in his family, since Kyuubi didn't show. Again.” Kiba mussed his hair with his hand. “This makes it six years they haven't seen each other.”

 

“M-maybe she's just late?” Hinata stepped up, her pale blue dress shimmering in the dance lights.

 

“Nah.” Kiba shook his head. “Kyuubi's the kind of fanatic who likes people to be punctual, or she gets physical, very physical.”

 

Sasuke looked at the clock again. One minute. He growled.

 

Kiba let out a low whistle. “Who is that?” he whispered under his breath. Sasuke turned, following Kiba's gaze and Naruka walked through the double doors, her hands clasped around each other in her nervousness.

 

“You again?!” Ino shrieked, pointing.

 

“Sasuke wasn't lying.” Sakura moaned. “He really was going with her.”

 

Kiba gawked again at Sasuke, his arms flopping limply in front of him.

 

“You're here with her?!” he squawked at Sasuke. “Holy crap, you really can have any girl you want!”

 

“Looks a lot like Naruto, doesn't she?” Shikamaru yawned, looking up at the ceiling. Beside him, Choji shrugged.

 

Naruka was wearing an orange halter dress down to the floor decorated with small, shimmering, sliver beads, and her long blonde hair was back in one ponytail. Sasuke sighed and started over, noticing that she was looking for him.

 

“Hey.” He snapped, not too nicely, he might add.

 

“Hey what?” she returned with a smirk, watching the ground intently, imitating how they met earlier.

 

“You're late.” He accused.

 

She scratched the back of her head sheepishly, still unable to meet his eye. “I had a little trouble finding something to wear, I never dress up.” she explained.

 

“Whatever.” Sasuke rolled his eyes. He thought he heard her whisper something along the lines of “Still the same as always” but when he turned to ask her what she meant, he found a glass—all ready half drained—up to her lips. There was no way anyone would've been able to say that and then swallow all of the punch in half a second.

 

Unless you have Naruto's stomach. Sasuke rolled his eyes. He still could not believe that he had fallen for that loud, obnoxious, human mouth, and that wasn't even mentioning the fact that Naruto had the brains of a dormouse.

 

“Oh, wow!” Naruka trotted off through the crowd towards the balcony, watching the sky intently. Sasuke bit back a groan and followed her.

 

“Did you see that?!” she looked at him for the first time, and if Sasuke was being honest with himself, he would've said that her eyes had made his breath catch in his throat, the way the stunning blue reflected the moon light, but as usual, being an Uchiha forbade any of those sorts of thoughts, at least, according to Sasuke (he knew that Itachi would've said differently), so he didn't allow himself to think that, and instead, just looked at her incredulously.

 

“Look at what?” the air of disinterest was thick around his voice.

 

“It was a---there's another one!” he finger traced a shooting star across the sky. She closed her eyes and let her hand settle on the railing, Sasuke rolled his eyes when he realized that she was making a wish.

 

The back of Sasuke's neck prickled, and his eyes slowly shifted to the right, finding Gaara leaning up against the wall in the shadows, watching them.

 

Sasuke's brow furrowed. Why is he watching us…? Actually, why isn't he with Naruto? Even if Naruto just wants to be with his “family”, he's known Gaara for forever, and considering Iruka is just a guardian, wouldn't Naruto classify that as family?

 

If he was counting the fact that he hadn't ever had homework, and the fact that no teacher in the entire school was available after the hour of seven at night, he would say that the school just got weirder by the second.

 

Later

 

Sasuke opened the dorm door to be hit in the face with Naruto singing out “No homework! No homework!” at the top of his lungs.

 

“Idiot, can't you shut up?!” Sasuke barked, dropping his key on the table.

 

“Huh?” Naruto turned from dancing in the kitchen to see who the intruder was. He blinked at Sasuke and then smirked. “How was the dance?” he asked innocently.

 

“Shut up.” Sasuke grumbled, loosening his tie.

 

“Speaking of which…” Naruto looked at the clock over the stove, “doesn't the dance end at midnight?”

 

“Yes.” Sasuke shrugged out of his jacket, sliding the tie from around his neck.

 

“But… it's only ten…” Naruto trailed off.

 

“Left early.” Sasuke said bluntly.

 

“…Why?”

 

“Wasn't cutting it, and the girl I went with had to leave early, I wasn't planning on waiting around for every other girl to try and kiss me at midnight.”

 

“I would have.” Naruto slurped down the last of his ramen and grabbed another package from the cabinet, doing a double-take after a moment. “You went with a girl?”

 

“What about it?” Sasuke stiffened.

 

Naruto shrugged, holding out his half eaten ramen container. “Hungry?” he asked around a full mouth of ramen.

 

“No.” Sasuke said flatly, unbuttoning his shirt as he padded to his room. “Naruto?” he called as he walked. “Do you… have a twin? A twin sister?” he clarified.

 

“I have an older sister.” Naruto offered from the kitchen.

 

“Never mind.” Sasuke shook his head, closing his door, peaking into Naruto's room before he did to look at that picture again. No, there was no way that girl was Kyuubi. The blonde hair was a dead give away, seeing as Kyuubi's was as red as anyone's can get, and not to mention that Kyuubi looked to be at least seven years older than Naruto, and Naruka was definitely their age.

 

“Hey, me an' Gaara are going out to town tomowow, and I thought you might wan'a come `cause you've `ever seen the town awound here before.” Naruto called from the kitchen around another full mouth of ramen.

 

“This miniscule place has a shop area?” Sasuke asked skeptically through the door. “Isnt it a little… small?”

 

“Yeah, but the town's cute, you should come!” Naruto pleaded, kicking the Uchiha's door lightly—Sasuke guessed—just to annoy him.

 

“I don't think so.” Why is it so damn hard to be cold to him anymore!? Dammit! He might not see it, but if you don't get your act back together, someone else is going to notice!

 

“Why not?!” Naruto wailed. “It'll be fun!”

 

“No.”

 

“Please?”

 

“No.”

 

“Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplea sepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?!” Naruto sang from the other side of the door, kicking it harder with his one toe.

 

“Alright, fine! Just shut up before all the other dorms come breaking down our door for being so damn loud!” Sasuke barked, yanking a t-shirt and shorts on.

 

Sasuke heard the click of a door, and then Naruto racing off into the other room.

 

“Gaara! Guess what?! Sasuke's coming with us!” Naruto crowed.

 

“You're loud.” Gaara replied in his bone-chilling, monotone voice.

 

“Isn't that great?” Naruto asked, a little quieter this time. Gaara just grunted.

 

“Uh, Gaara, what's that?” Naruto asked quietly.

 

Sasuke walked in to see Gaara putting an eight-pint jug labeled `bleach' on the counter, but judging by the odd-colored liquid in the bottle, he guessed it was anything but bleach.

 

“Triazolam*, why?” Gaara asked, in total seriousess. (A drug for insomnia)

 

“O-oh.” Naruto stuttered, backing up to search through the drawer of kitchen utensils, producing a red tag with a skull and cross bones on it and hung it around the neck of the bottle. Sasuke craned his neck to the contents of the drawer, finding it half filled with those same red tags. He blanched; apparently, this `Gaara bringing home deadly chemicals' thing was fairly regular.

 

“Estazolam didn't work?” Naruto asked, his voice quavering a little as he washed his hands vigorously, sending water everywhere.

 

“…I've slept about four hours in the past two weeks, I'm going for chloroform next if this doesn't work, and then ether.” Gaara replied darkly, placing the bottle in the fridge. When Naruto didn't look at all phased, Sasuke took that as his cue to leave, but paused on his way out.

 

“Naruto, you've got something on your cheek.” He grumbled, looking over his shoulder.

 

Naruto blinked and licked his thumb, bringing it up to trace along his cheek, smearing the little red blot further across his skin. Sasuke's brow furrowed when fear shot across Naruto's eyes and he quickly stuck his finger in his mouth, rubbing his other hand vigorously across his flesh.

 

“Catsup.” He said, just a little too quickly, looking in the reflection of one of the clean plates to make sure it was all off. Sasuke's brow creased deeper in confusion when he noticed Gaara—his muscles as tensed as a wound spring, though his stance was relaxed—watching them intently, his eyes flicking back and forth between the two.

 

“Oh, Sasuke,” Naruto jumped to the next subject so fast Sasuke almost missed the statement, “don't wear your school uniform tomorrow.”

 

“I know, idiot.” Sasuke muttered, walking out of the kitchen.

 

“Bastard!” Naruto yelled in return as Sasuke shut his door.

 

Sasuke pulled his shirt over his head, looking up at the moon through his window. That was not catsup, it was way too thin—like paint—and too deep a crimson… so what was it? Did he hurt himself or something? It looked… like blood. So why would he lie?

 

His head turned to his door at the sound of the voice on the other side.

 

“Moron.” Gaara growled. “Next time, make sure you've got it all off. I'd rather not have to fight to save our hides if he finds out too soon.”

 

“I know! I know!” Naruto was smacking his forehead against the wall, and quite hard, Sasuke might add.

 

“Stop.” Gaara ordered. “Just don't slip up again.”

 

Next Day

 

Sasuke stumbled out of his room, rubbing his eyes furiously before walking into the kitchen. Gaara was seated on the couch, his feet up on the table as he glared at the TV, but Naruto was nowhere in sight.

 

Sasuke took one look at Gaara and hoped that he wasn't overdressed. He had slipped on a simple t-shirt with his family crest on the back of the neck and jeans that morning, but from what Gaara was wearing, Sasuke could've gone to visit the queen of England in what he was wearing.

 

Gaara had on a torn, red, long-sleeve shirt with a black skull and cross bones on the chest, his jeans were ripped and chains hung from his waist, his sneakers were so dirty you couldn't tell the original color and he was wearing black, leather wristbands with chains on them. The triazolam didn't appear to have worked, as the black rings around his eyes seemed an even darker inky-black than usual.

 

Sasuke stood around for a good ten minutes before deciding to see how much he could get out of the red head.

 

“Naruto?” he asked, leaving a great deal of room for discussion options. Usually he was fine with the silence, but the silence with Gaara would have made him fidget if he wasn't an Uchiha.

 

Gaara's ice-blue eyes traveled slowly to the clock above the stove, and then back to the TV equally slowly. “Late.” Gaara said flatly.

 

Not two seconds later, Naruto burst from the hallway, jamming an orange baseball hat backwards over his unkempt blonde locks. Sasuke mentally relaxed, Naruto was wearing basically what he was, an orange t-shirt with that same black sun-like marking on his stomach that he had on all of his other shirts and jeans, so that was just how Gaara always dressed.

 

“Naruto.” Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

 

“Yeah?” the blonde looked up, grabbing his wallet from the top of the fridge and stuffing it in his back pocket.

 

“You're slow.”

 

“Hey---!” Naruto barked.

 

“Well, look who's up early.” Sai mused as he entered the kitchen, a cocky smirk on his face that made Sasuke grind his teeth. He didn't know why, but Sai just really rubbed him the wrong way.

 

“You all going out today?” Sai poured himself a huge cup of the already made coffee.

 

“Yep, to the town.” Naruto beamed, giving Sai a thumbs up with his feet spread and the other hand on his hip.

 

“Watch out for Kabuto. If he's in town too… well, you don't want to run into them alone.” Sai smiled.

 

“We'll be fine!” Naruto rolled his eyes. “Those idiots couldn't take us down if they sold their souls to do it!” he said proudly.

 

“One of these days you're going to jinx that.” Sai chuckled, sitting down as far away from Gaara as he could on the miniscule couch to watch the news. Sasuke could've sworn he saw the youngest Sabaku's glare narrow, but it was so subtle, he wasn't sure.

 

“Whatever, let's go!” Naruto sang, jumping for the door. Sasuke sighed heavily and started after him as Gaara rose slowly from the couch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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