Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ My Own Tutor ❯ Chapter 2

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

My Own Tutor
Author: Dagger Stiletto
Pairing: SasuNaru or NaruSasu, not sure yet…. -.-"
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I do own this fanfic, so back off.

Sasuke was told later on that day to meet Naruto at the soccer field, and if not there, then to check the tennis courts. Kiba came with him to the field, where they found Gaara accompanying Naruto. There was a small CD player on a bench playing “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse, and the blonde and redhead were dancing.

The sight was provocative as hell, and Kiba was fairly salivating. There was a smile on the blonde’s facea true, bright oneand Gaara’s intense expression was less sever with the softening of enjoyment across his features. Their hips swung in sync, brushing against the other’s occasionally, and sometimes ground against each other erotically when the beat called for it.

The thought crossed the Uchiha’s mind that if Naruto wasn’t so pathetically built, he could easily pass as an exotic dancer at one of the local clubs.

The song ended and moved on to a similar tempo, but the music abruptly halted with a click of a button.

“Aww, Kyu, that was a good one, too,” the blonde complained, pouting as he gazed at the red cat with its paw on the CD player.

“Mrroow,” the cat replied lazily.

Then Naruto finally noticed his audience and immediately turned shy, blushing delicately in embarrassment. He stared at Sasuke, then at Kiba. He touched his chin meaningfully after a moment.

Sasuke glanced over and grimaced lightly. “Dude, you’re drooling.”

Kiba quickly swiped his sleeve across his face. “Well, if you weren’t such a frigid bastard and could actually feel sexual desire for either sex, you’d drool, too,” he defended sourly. “I gotta go. Ja ne, Uchiha.” And he retreated.

Sasuke cleared the frown away, forgetting the insult about his sexual health, and approached Naruto who was bidding farewell to Gaara. “I’ll be by to pick you up in an hour so we can be home for supper on time,” the redhead promised, hugging the blonde tightly. “Call me if you need picked up earlier.” Tehn he walked off with a warning glance at Sasuke, protectiveness toward the blonde tangible in the air.

Naruto straddled the bench, moving the CD player out of the way, and brought out a French textbook, a notebook, and a couple pens. Sasuke mimicked Naruto’s position, sitting with two feet between them so that their knees didn’t brush.

“So are you and Gaara together?” he inquired before he could stop himself.

The blue eyes blinked up at him in question. “No….we’re foster brothers,” he answered slowly. “Well, actually, his older brother and sister are his guardians, and they agreed to foster me and Kyuubi.” With that, real conversations ceased to be replaced by discussion of what exactly Sasuke needed to improve on in French.

Naruto was very patient and respectful as he led Sasuke proverbially “by the hand” through the first chapter of French. His voice was calm and smooth, though quiet and often hesitant. Sasuke found that he quite enjoyed listening to the pitch and texture of the blonde’s voice. It was easy to follow, and the tone and certainty of what within of what the boy was teaching allowed the raven to concentrate on his work.

It was a warm, comfortable feeling, one that Sasuke was more than willing to experience more than once in his lifetime.

Five minutes before the end of the hour, Naruto called it quits and carefully put his things away. “How is it that you aren’t satisfied with your grades? So far, I haven’t found anything wrong with your comprehension of this subject,” Naruto stated, bringing Kyuubi into his lap. The cat purred contentedly from his position.

“My father thinks I need to be the absolute best in everything. That’s why I’m top student in Chemistry, Physics, History, Business management, Trigonometry, and the captain of the tennis and archery tears.” He said it all without malice and pride, but rather with a certain amount of bitterness and self-loathing. “I’m second in soccer, French, English, and I’m less than satisfactory at playing piano.”

Naruto blinked a bit. “Oh.” He fidgeted for a moment. “I’m the dobe,” he said quietly, ducking his brightly-hued head.

Sasuke blinked. He remember some of his peers, especially Sakura and Ino, talking about a baka blonde dobe. It had never occurred to him that Naruto could be the aforementioned individual. “Why?” was all he could think to ask.

Before Naruto could answer, Gaara’s voice called across the distance from the road fifty yards from where the blonde and raven sat upon the bench. “Naruto-kun! You ready?”

“Coming Gaara!” The blonde turned to Sasuke. “We’ll work on English tomorrow, okay, Uchiha-san?” he intoned softly, standing as he did so, a shy smile on his face.

Kyuubi perched sort of like a bird on his owner’s shoulder.

“That sounds fine with me, but I’d prefer if you’d call me Sasuke.”

A blush darkened the boy’s tan cheeks, the whisker-scars there all the more noticeable. He nodded, then gave a short wave before scurrying off to hop into Gaara’s blue Caddy. Gaara said a few things to Naruto while Sasuke watched; then the redhead turned to gaze at said raven. He nodded slowly once, locking eyes, to the Uchiha before putting the vehicle in gear and pulling away from the soccer field.

Sasuke remained in place, watching them until they were out of sight before he gathered his own things and headed home.

~*~~*~
“So how did the tutoring lessons go?” Itachi questioned an hour after Sasuke arrived home, having just come home from whatever affairs that Father had had him doing for the corporation, which they had sole ownership of.

“They were fine,” the younger raven replied tonelessly as he wrote the answer to a simple Trig problem down on a sheet of line, college-ruled notebook paper.

“How did you like Naruto-kun?”

Sasuke raised his eyebrow at the honorific suffix, even though he knew Itachi couldn’t see the gesture since he stood behind his otouto; Itachi rarely saw fit to address anyone below his social status with an honorific. “He’s very….intriguing. I met him by having to fend off the Akatsuki gang before class.”

“Already?”

“Yes. It would seem that he and his foster brother are rather used to these attacks. Gaara tried to defend Naruto from Orochimaru’s sexual harassments and impure intentions.” he closed his textbook and set it to the side. “Even Kyuubi fights the gang.” He frowned as he turned to face Itachi. “I’m concerned about him, though. He’s awful small for a kid his age. And he’s considered as the Konoha High dobe.”

Itachi was silent for a moment. Then he spoke, “I am an acquaintance with his guardian, Sabaku Kankuro, and from what he told me, the boy had a traumatic experience which caused him to starve himself before he was entered in the child services. He’s having a hard time getting his weight back up, especially with his troubles in school. I believe he has been in the Sabakus’ custody for about ten months. He and Gaara connected instantly in a fraternal bond, but he is mostly withdrawn and quiet when among a large amount of people, specifically those that are unfamiliar to him.”

Sasuke took this all in silently and attentively. After a bit of silence, he said, “So what happened to him before he was taken in?”

“Naruto is unwilling to share that information with anyone, and he refuses to go to anybody with psychological expertise,” the elder raven replied coolly. “All they know is that it was severely traumatic, and if someone does not sleep with him in the same bed, he wakes up screaming from nightmares and will not go back to sleep for the rest of the night.”

Sympathy arose in Sasuke’s gut for the tiny blonde, spreading to his chest, but he didn’t let it show on his face or in his body language. His father had conditioned him never to show emotion unless it was absolutely unavoidable. Itachi, however, knew everything about his otouto, and he knew that Sasuke was upset with the blonde’s sad story, as was he.

Who could not but feel sad about something happening to such a untainted and innocent soul such as Naruto had?

“Now, as I understand it, the boy always had trouble keeping up with his grades and the rest of the class, and the students around him didn’t help much with their constant verbal, and sometimes physical, abuse regarding his appearance, grades, and personality. Only since he came to Konoha has his GPA improved, though only slightly, but the harassment has lessened even less due to Gaara’s intervention and the more watchful attentions of the faculty here.”

Sasuke sighed softly. It was distressing to hear something to horrible occurring to such a bright and kind person like Naruto. He rubbed his face tiredly before changing the subject. “I think I’ll bathe before dinner, Itachi. I’ll be downstairs shortly, so tell Mother and Father to go ahead and start without me if I’m not there in time.”

“Very well, otouto.” Itachi nodded, slight affection sparking his gaze before he turned and left the room.

Sasuke slumped once he was alone. He sat atop his mattress, rubbing his temples. Distress over his new tutor filled his mind, and he couldn’t get the attractive little blonde out of his mind for the rest of the evening.

~*~~*~
The Next Day, Midmorning

“Another sleepless night, huh?” Neji commented from his seat beside Sasuke in class.

“You’re one to talk,” was the grumbled reply.

Neji blushed on interesting shade of red. “Yes, well….” He cleared his throat. “I at least have an excuse whereas you usually don’t.”

Sasuke rubbed his eyes. “I’ve been trying to think of a way to improve the way things are in school for Naruto-kun.”

“The blonde Uzumaki boy?” Neji questioned softly.

“None other.”

“You’ve taken to calling him by his first name already? You barely talked to him.” He was clearly incredulous.

“We’re on a first name basis, I suppose. It was the only way to get him to stop calling me Uchiha-san, and Itachi has taken to calling him that as well.”

“Boys, please be quiet,” Hatake Kakashi-sensei snapped. “Class is in session.”

Oh joy, English…. Wait, it’s English! Which means…. He ever-so-casually picked his head up and glanced around. Naruto sat on the far side of the room with his head buried in his arms and hidden from the others. The immediate people around him were flicking erasers, paper clips, and spitballs at him. Gaara wasn’t around to help him.

Without a word, Sasuke stood and made his way to the seat directly behind the blonde. The next thing that was thrown at the blonde was caught in Sasuke’s hand before it could hit its target and launched right back with lightning speed. The perpetrator cried out in pain as he was made the victim, and Kakashi-sensei turned around.

“Is there a problem?” he demanded, looking at the boy who’d cried out.

“I-iie, Kakashi-sensei,” he stuttered.

“Good. Naruto-kun, please pick your head up.”

The blonde head rose grudgingly, and he sat up straight. Sasuke reached forward and patted the boy on the back. The boy turned hesitantly and smiled when he saw Sasuke. He nodded, as though understanding.

The rest of the class went by pretty smoothly without much incident. No one tried anything further with the youngest Uchiha around, so Naruto didn’t have to worry about being tortured all throughout class. They were given five minutes of free time, and Sasuke made Naruto turn around to face him. Neji came over, forcefully removed a boy from his seat, sat down, and held his hand out to Naruto.

“Hyuuga Neji. I’m in your next period class.” He grinned kindly.

Naruto nodded in acknowledgment.

“Is that so, Neji?” Sasuke questioned.

The other brunette nodded, his long hair falling over his shoulder.

“Then you can look after Naruto,” the Uchiha concluded, satisfied. That would keep the little blonde out of trouble.

Or, rather, keep trouble away from him.

“That’s not necessary….” Naruto protested modestly, still shy.

“Yes it is. The deal was to keep you safe in exchange for tutoring. My friends will be eager to keep you safe when I’m not around if it means I won’t get sent away to a different school.” He patted Naruto’s hand. “You don’t mind, do you Neji?”

“Of course not. And I’m tired of witnessing harassment anyhow.”

“And if Neji gets in a fight, Kiba will get in a fight, and Kiba fights dirty,” Sasuke said. “If Kiba gets in a fight, someone will get hurt, and no one wants that, so no one will start a fight.”

“You said ‘fight’ five times in two breaths,” Naruto commented.

“Yup.”

The blonde blinked.

“So how did tutoring go yesterday? Any progress?” Neji queried.

“No. We only went over the basics and pinpointed what he needs help with in French,” Naruto replied quietly as he put his things in his backpack. “We’ll be doing the same today with English.”

“Are you sure you need to do that? Shouldn’t you pick up on what we’re doing now?”

“A home without a solid foundation does not make a sturdy place to live,” Naruto said, sounding for all the world like a philosopher. “Hence, if we do not go over the basics now before steadily working our way to what we’re doing now, it will eventually come back to bite him in the butt. After today, we’ll be spending an hour on each every day to ensure that we get what needs to be done accomplished.”

“How very….thought out,” Neji murmured, clearly surprised.

Before anything else could be said, the bell rang, and Naruto stood. “See you later, Sasuke-kun,” he murmured before turning and walking away.

~*~~*~*~*~~*~
Dagger: There’s not a lot I have to say about this chapter other than I was determined to get it longer than four pages in this chapter. I made it to five, at least on the file on my comp. What it actually comes up to on mediaminer is hard to tell, really. In any event, I wrote it down, and now I’m addicted to the story. ^.^ In fact, I’m going to type chappie three right after I’m done talking to you guys. However, I’ve decided htat with all multi-chapter stories that I post, I refuse to update a new chapter until I get at least two reviews, whether they are good or bad. If you have any advice or comments on where you think the story should be taken ARE APPRECIATED AND ENCOURAGED. Thank you for your time, patience, and willingness to read this story. Review please and thank you.