Perchance to Dream
Gah, I suck at writing author notes! So I'll just say that I hope you enjoy the story, yada yada, and for those who don't know:
nar·co·lep·sy (när'kə-lěp'sē)
n. pl. nar·co·lep·sies
A disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable, though often brief, attacks of deep sleep, sometimes accompanied by paralysis and hallucinations.
- courtesy of dictionary(dot)com!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I cry myself to sleep at night.
"What's your punk-ass doing here so early on a Monday morning?" Tsunade flared as the all-too-familiar scrawny blonde edged warily around the door; her eyes fell to the pink slip clutched in his hand, no doubt detailing some misdemeanour the boy had managed to conjure up. "Give it here…" she ordered exasperatedly, holding out a hand whilst the other cradled her head.
"Sorry to bother you so early in the day, Sannin-sama," Naruto smiled politely as he placed the slip in his headmistress's hand, watching as she unfolded it and studied the contents – her face becoming redder the further down the page she read, finishing and turning her head to glare resolutely at the blue-eyed nuisance.
"Blackmailing a teacher?" she asked incredulously, quoting the note, the small pink leaf of paper flopping morosely to the desk she was sat at. There was a small silence, Naruto unsure of whether he should even bother trying to justify himself or just let her pop a vein shouting in his face as she normally did. He decided on the former, coming to the conclusion that he wasn't completely in the wrong.
"It's not my fault he's been naughty," he replied courteously, a well-practised expression of innocence covering his face.
"Oh what are you, five?" Tsunade snapped, standing from her chair and coming round to the front of her desk, facing Naruto. Although he was marginally taller than she was, he still flinched at the sight of her glowering up at him – he sensed impending doom. "The staff at our college are supposed to be treated with utmost respect," she went on, "a concept which still, despite our best efforts, continues to evade you."
"Yes, Sannin-sama," Naruto churned, not exactly sure of what he was agreeing to, and not particularly listening either.
"Just because you haven't completed your coursework does not give you the right to use a member of staff's personal life against them," the headmistress continued, Naruto avoiding eye contact – gosh, she made it sound so seedy. He'd only dropped in casually that he'd seen Kakashi-sensei behind the gym with some other guy when he asked for the long-overdue draft of his coursework. Heck, he didn't even know what blackmail was.
"Yes, Sannin-sama," he repeated.
"You're not even listening are you? You're such a pain in my ass, Uzumaki – I don't even know how to punish you for this…" she walked back round her desk and sat haughtily back in her chair, clasping her hands together and peering intently at Naruto, as though some cruel and befitting punishment would materialise on his face. "I suppose first, you will apologise to Hatake-sensei and have your coursework in by tomorrow morning," she began, Naruto looking up, his mouth falling open in horror. She gave him no time to begin talking his way out of it, however, "no arguments! Let me remind you Uzumaki, that if you fail this year you cannot continue to second half of your courses here this Summer. You're on several final warnings from almost all of your subject tutors," she ranted, hoping to instil some sort of focus in the boy to get his act together.
Her threats fell on deaf ears however, as Naruto wasn't even planning on continuing his studies for another year – he really didn't see the point in wasting his time any further, and if he was completely honest the only reason he hadn't left so far was because his friends were all there; he hadn't voiced this to anyone of course, as he knew as soon as he did his tutors would no doubt petition to get him out as soon as possible.
Tsunade opened her mouth to go on after receiving naught but a blank stare from the boy still standing expectantly in front of her desk, waiting for the rest of his punishment, before a knock at her office door was heard. Naruto spun round, glad of the interruption, gazing at the vague outline of someone waiting through the marbled glass panel.
"Come in," the headmistress barked, followed by an immediate twist of the knob as the door swung open. Naruto watched interestedly as a boy around his age entered the room and strode purposefully towards Tsunade's desk, reaching out and handing her an envelope before standing back, hands in his pockets. Both Naruto and Tsunade waited for him to introduce himself, or tell them why he was there, but he just stared indifferently around the office.
Naruto raised his eyebrows at his Tsunade, who did the same back, all previous animosity apparently momentarily forgotten. 'Such a lack of social skills…' Naruto thought sadly – there was nothing worse than someone who couldn't hold a conversation. There was an awkward silence, until finally:
"Uchiha-kun!" she roared, the boy wincing slightly. "Sorry, I forgot I was expecting your arrival today – had a bit of ah… bother with the student you see behind you," she went on in a more controlled voice, her expression becoming stony as she gestured towards Naruto. The boy turned round briefly and was met by a smile, dazzling to the point of being rather intimidating plastered across the blonde boy's face – it was how he greeted everyone; the favour was not returned however, his beaming face being met with a look of utter confusion before he turned back around.
"It's okay."
"Good, good!" Tsunade bellowed again. 'Mad woman, she needs a bit of volume control ', Naruto thought quietly, rolling his eyes. The headmistress and the strange boy continued their 'conversation' – if it could be called that, Tsunade rambling on for record amounts to be met with monosyllabic answers and brief statements from 'Uchiha-kun'.
Naruto surveyed the boy, gathering from what he had bothered listening to of their talk that he was a new student; he was wearing a plain black blazer and shirt with dark grey jeans – nothing out of the ordinary. His hair though, Naruto decided, was cool. It was a shiny, jet-black colour and stuck up at the back in a way that the blonde decided he would try to replicate with some gel that night, bangs falling lazily into his face at the front, matching his dark eyes.
"…I'll just get you your timetable," Tsunade's voice permeated Naruto's stupor, and he looked up to see her rummaging through a drawer before procuring a sheet and handing it to the boy. She received no thanks.
"I trust my brother told you of my… condition?" he asked whilst gazing down at his lessons, which was probably the most he'd said throughout the entire interview. Naruto's ears pricked at his voice, so full of determined calm – condition? What sort of condition? And his brother was – oh, of course! Uchiha-sensei must be this brother he was talking about; Naruto wondered how he hadn't noticed the striking resemblance immediately.
"Ah yes, all of your staff have been informed," the headmistress replied, smiling kindly. "Now, you're going to be late if you don't get a move on," she tagged on, glancing at her watch, before her eyes came up and met the blonde haired idiot she'd almost forgot she hadn't yet punished. "Naruto… you're to come back here tomorrow morning to give me time to think of your punishment, but in the meantime you can apologise to Hatake-sensei and pull some coursework out of your lazy ass."
Naruto groaned as he turned towards the door to start making his way to History, his first lesson of the morning before Tsunade suddenly continued, "Wait a moment!"
He turned to see his headmistress standing up and striding round her desk in his direction – was she going to clout him?! He flinched as she extended an arm, only to feel himself being pulled inwards towards the boy still standing in the centre of the room by a forceful hand on his back; the Uchiha kid looked as confused as he was as he found a hand on his own back, the two boys being pulled inwards until they were facing each other, an arm's length apart.
"Uzumaki Naruto, meet Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade beamed down at him, which was more scary than anything. After not responding, Naruto received a sharp elbow to the ribs and a hissed, "shake his hand, idiot."
"Ow!" he growled, rubbing the offended area with one hand and extending the other begrudgingly. "N… nice to meet you," he mumbled, not making eye contact – there was something about this 'Sasuke' that rubbed him up the wrong way. He felt a hand in his, and was surprised by how cold it felt despite the warmness of the office they were in.
"Yeah."
That was apparently all the greetings he was going to receive; Naruto wondered briefly what Tsunade was introducing them for, looking up expectantly when she didn't talk for several moments. "Oh! Right, well that's that. Naruto, you are to escort your new friend to all of his lessons, including the ones you do not share. You can tell your teachers you were running an errand for me if this makes you late for anything."
'My new friend?' Naruto's mind raged incredulously – that was a little presumptuous, Sasuke obviously sharing his consternation as his dark eyebrows contracted slightly at the term. Great, now he had to ferry this anti-social stranger to all of his lessons; 'how troublesome' he thought, echoing his friend Shikamaru's favourite phrase. Tsunade was conveniently oblivious to the possibility this could backfire in any way, looking from one to the other, smiling eerily.
"Well, get going!" she cheered, eschewing the two boys from her office with the hands still placed on their backs. The door swung shut behind them, leaving them standing alone together in the corridor – they were both a little late to their lessons, as there was no sounds of bustling students making their way to their classrooms, no stampeding of feet. Naruto groaned, looking over at Sasuke who was peering at him boredly.
"Alright then, let's get this over with – can I see your timetable?" he asked, politely as he could muster to this unknown quantity. Wordlessly, Sasuke reached into his pocket pulling out the piece of paper and handing it to Naruto. Scanning it briefly, he concluded, "right, you've got Chemistry first this morning, and then… you're in my art class this afternoon!" he checked the sheet again; this guy didn't seem at all like the type to be interested in art, one of Naruto's favourite subjects.
"Okay."
"Right then, follow me to Chemistry!" Naruto rhymed, lifting an arm and pointing theatrically down the corridor to the right. Sasuke looked at him like he was quite retarded before walking after the blonde boy, who had sped off down said corridor.
Despite being quite the anti-Naruto, Naruto found himself being quite intrigued by the Uchiha, most probably owing the this 'condition' touched upon in Tsunade's office. He decided to be quite tactless and ask the boy up front, turning round to face the boy, continuing to walk backwards down past the classrooms on either side. "Oi, Sasuke… I can call you that right?" Naruto added hastily, knowing his fondness for calling people by their first name sometimes caused offence.
"It's fine," he replied, his countenance unchanging.
Naruto sighed in relief. "Well, Sasuke – what was that 'condition' thing that you talked about in Sannin-sama's office?"
He immediately wished he'd never mentioned it as Sasuke's eyes flared and he stopped dead in his tracks. The whole atmosphere seemed to change – Naruto swallowed heavily as he sensed such an aura of anger radiating from the formerly passive boy standing before him. 'Oops, must be pretty personal.'
"You were not supposed to hear anything about that," Sasuke hissed quietly, causing the hairs on the back of Naruto's neck to stand on end. "You were not supposed to be in the office when I met the headmistress."
"Sorry…" Naruto mumbled, realising he had touched a pretty big nerve in the boy.
"Just… let's not talk about it again," Sasuke said, with considerably less venom. Naruto chanced a nervous smile, to which Sasuke merely rolled his eyes tiredly. "You were taking me to Chemistry?"
"Oh! Right…" Naruto jumped, completely forgetting what he was in the middle of as he and the Uchiha stood facing one another. He whirled around, and continued down towards the college science labs, though he didn't say another word to Sasuke, and unsurprisingly was likewise ignored.
"LUNCH TIME!" was the resounding yell from a certain blonde sat at the back of the History class room with pinpoint precision as the second hand on the clock ticked to 12:30. He began feverishly stuffing his paper and books into his bag, as Umino-sensei scowled at him unnoticed from the front of the room.
"Naruto, how many times? It is rude to start packing up before I have dismissed the class," he berated half-heartedly, knowing that even a lightning strike couldn't stop the boy if there was food being served somewhere; when Naruto thought at all, it was with his stomach.
"Sorry, Iruka-sensei!" he replied, turning upon his teacher with the cheesiest of grins before leaning down to Shikamaru who was sat next to him, packing his things away at an unbearably slow pace. "Hurry up Shika, it's baked potato day!"
"Don't you have to go and meet the new kid?" he asked irritated – Shikamaru was not one to be rushed. Naruto pondered for a moment.
"He's a big lad. I'm sure he can find the lunch room by himself," he decided, though he made a mental note to make sure Sasuke actually did get something to eat. He was far too skinny.
"Why's he joined so late in the year any way? We only have one term left," Shikamaru asked, cutting across Naruto's little train of thought, only serving to start a new one.
"He didn't say…"
Why had Sasuke started so late in the academic year? What was the point in leaving whatever college he came from to come to this dump for a term? Naruto almost forgot about his lunch before Shikamaru tugged on his arm, having finally packed away before heading towards the door. They arrived at the lunch hall, Naruto wasting no time in pushing his way to the front of the queue for his baked potato with ramen noodles, Shikamaru opting for chicken soup, rolling his eyes at his friend's unnecessary excitement at the prospect of food.
The two of them made their way over to the familiar table, already there were Kiba, Lee and Chouji, the latter's plate piled high with a bit of everything off the menu, Kiba with a meaty burger and Lee with a leafy green salad. Naruto chose a seat facing the main doors to the hall so he could see Sasuke coming in – he'd have to find him by the end of lunch anyway to take him to their art class.
"Oi oi, Naruto!" Lee grinned toothily at him, giving a customary thumbs up. "Looking forward to gym class tomorrow with Gai-sensei?!" he asked excitedly – honestly, if Lee wasn't talking about how he'd broken his own record for one-handed press ups he was jellying with excitement over their mandatory physical education class.
"I think you're the only one in the whole college who is," Naruto replied truthfully; Gai-sensei could reduce the strongest man to tears, or make them sweat so much that tears were no longer physically possible. The blonde shuddered as he wondered if he could come up with a plausible excuse to skip his class, but to no avail – if he said he had a sore leg, Gai would make him walk on his hands. If he said he had a headache, he'd tell him to run it off.
"I don't know why I seem to be the only student who looks forward to such intense training sessions! They are most – ahh!" Lee faltered, his eyes falling on something at the other end of the room. Naruto turned his head in the direction Lee faced, seeing at once the cause for distraction – Sakura had just bought her lunch and was making her way over to her table where Ino was already sat.
"Lee, instead of going all heart-eyed on us whenever you see her, have you ever considered talking to Sakura?" Shikamaru drawled, having also deduced the reason for Lee's current stupor.
"I don't see what's so great about her," Kiba deadpanned, Lee immediately twisting back to face the boy sat opposite him, his mouth a tight 'o' in anger, enormous eyebrows contracted alarmingly.
"How can you not see the beauty of Sakura-chan?! The hair… the eyes… they sparkle with the energy of youth!" Lee argued violently, banging his fist upon the table as he emphasized the last word.
"Okay man, calm down," Kiba replied, raising his hands in surrender, "but Shika's right, you should just talk to her or something."
"Perhaps you're right! Women like a forceful man, no?" Lee reasoned with himself. Naruto snorted into his noodles.
"Sure, Lee. Go for it," he encouraged. Without much further ado, Lee wolfed down what remained of his salad with worrying vigour before bounding over to the girls' table before anyone could tell him he had a large quantity of green gunk between those pearly whites he liked to show off so much.
"Tragic…" Kiba mused as he watched. Naruto however, was less interested as he turned his attention back to the door; Sasuke hadn't come to lunch yet. Was he lost? 'Nah, he would have just followed all of the students coming here. Maybe he's just not hungry', he assured himself, but he couldn't help but feel a knot of guilt in his chest – Sasuke was the new kid, he obviously hadn't had time to make new friends yet and something told him that wasn't an easy thing for him to do in the first place. Naruto vowed to make another effort to get to know him, admittedly he hadn't tried very hard upon their first meeting; one art class would be enough to make Sasuke like him, it was decided.
"You're remarkably pensive today Naruto," Shikamaru observed after a whole quarter of an hour of silence from the normally-outspoken blonde. Naruto hadn't noticed the time pass as he stared fixatedly at the door to the lunch hall, and was startled when he realised there was only ten minutes till lessons started – where was that idiot? Didn't he get hungry?
"Am I?" he replied vaguely, sipping the juice out of his carton. Shikamaru did not pursue the subject - he never got anything remotely intelligible from the blonde at the best of times, hence it would be almost impossible if the moron was distracted by something or other. "Gotta go," the blonde added suddenly, lifting from his seat and taking his empty tray over to one of the dinner ladies before exiting the hall to find Sasuke.
'So… if I were an anti-social, kinda weird kid, where would I have spent the last hour?' he wondered, coming up with no obvious answer – role-play was not Naruto's forte; he decided on wandering rather aimlessly around college, occasionally asking a random passer-by whether they'd seen 'the new kid with black hair'.
"Um, yeah, I saw him going into Sannin-sama's office about ten minutes ago," was the answer he eventually received from a small, brown haired girl near the Biology labs. 'Great, he would be at the other end of the college' Naruto grumbled as he sped off towards the headmistress's office, aware that he'd probably be late for art and get sent to her anyway with another pink slip.
He rounded the corner of her corridor breathlessly, in time to see a familiar blazer and pair of grey jeans disappearing down the other end. "OI! SASUKE!" he bellowed between gasps for breath. The black haired boy stopped before rounding slowly, visibly frowning at Naruto's rudeness. The blonde didn't care, as per usual, walking up towards him after regaining his composure, "where the hell've you been all lunch?" he shouted, even though Sasuke could hear him perfectly well.
"I wasn't hungry."
"You… weren't hungry?" Naruto repeated confusedly, unable to comprehend how someone could not want food in the designated eating time. On the verge of asking how that was possible, Naruto remembered his pledge to make Sasuke like him and decided not to push the subject as he'd probably just annoy the boy. "Well, we're gonna be late for Art if we don't get a move on!" he chirped brightly, trying to permeate the gloom that seemed to shroud Sasuke. Receiving only a nod, Naruto turned on his heel and began walking towards the art department, expecting the other boy to catch up.
When he didn't, Naruto slowed down until they were level, Sasuke turning his head to try and ignore the blonde. Unperturbed, Naruto dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a bag of M&Ms, opened them and offered one to Sasuke. "Want one?"
"No thank you," the Uchiha replied, giving the bag a disdainful look, as though it offended him in some way.
"But you must be starving, you've had nothing to eat!"
"I had something this morning."
"Yeah, but you missed lunch! The most important meal of the day!"
"That would be breakfast," Sasuke sighed tiredly. Naruto realised that it would perhaps take more than just an art lesson to make Sasuke like him. Perhaps two? He liked a challenge, as long as it wasn't particularly academic; he remained silent until they reached the art rooms – a separate room detached from the main building. Naruto liked art very much, so much as to call it his favourite lesson, and he actually tried hard in it.
"Sorry we're late, Kurenai-sensei!" he hollered as he entered the room, his voice echoing off the cold, brick walls as the teacher rubbed her temples resignedly – she had hoped Naruto would be absent that day, what with her hangover from hell from an evening with Sarutobi-sensei.
"Whatever Uzumaki, just sit down. Oh – is this the new kid?" she asked, red eyes falling upon Sasuke.
"Yeah! This is Uchiha Sasuke!" Naruto piped, fluttering his arms like a game-show host showing off a prize. Kurenai nodded, looking Sasuke up and down before telling him to take a seat.
Naruto snaked his way through the randomly placed, paint spattered tables to where he sat – not surprisingly he had a table to himself in the furthest corner where it was hard even for him to distract anyone; yet, as stated before, Naruto likes a challenge. Sasuke was unsure of where to sit – he would have preferred his own table like Naruto, but seeing as they all had at least one person on them he walked over to the one next to Naruto's where there was only one other student, a boy with long, blonde hair and a very feminine face. He went to sit down next to him.
"Don't sit there. Sasori'll cap you," the boy said as he watched the Uchiha moving towards the other seat. Sasuke grumbled, looking around for somewhere else, praying that a certain other blonde wouldn't –
"Ah, it's okay Sasuke! You can sit on my table!" came Naruto's voice, having watched what had happened, leaving Sasuke no choice but to make his solemn way over to Naruto's table and begrudgingly taking the seat next to him. The blonde grinned again, 'Great! Operation Get-Sasuke-to-Like-Me is working! He's sitting next to me!'
Naruto was given little time to celebrate as Kurenai-sensei's weary voice carried over the classroom. "Right, I told you all to take portrait photos of yourselves over the holiday, so please get those out and get on with a painted composition," she managed before leaning forward and resting her head on the table. "Paper," she said, pointing a hand to the left, "and paints," pointing another hand to the right. There was an enormous scraping of chairs as the class rose to collect their equipment.
Back in their seats, Naruto mounted his paper on an easel and began mixing paints, looking at a picture of himself with his tongue out. Sasuke just stood there with paper and paint, not wanting to disturb their haggard-looking teacher to ask what he was supposed to do, as he wasn't aware of the need for self-photographs.
"Ah! Sasuke, don't just sit there, use one of my photos!" Naruto laughed as though he'd read his mind. Sasuke muttered a thanks and looked through the rest of the pile of photographs next to Naruto – every last one of him pulling some kind of ridiculous face. Sighing, he decided on the least outrageous one and began to mix his own paint.
"Sasori, why are you late?" Kurenai-sensei croaked some time after everyone had begun their work, looking up at the red-haired boy who had just strolled into the room.
"I don't know."
"Whatever. Go and sit down," the teacher sighed before returning her head to the table. Sasori made his way around the tables towards the one next to Naruto and Sasuke's.
"Sasori! Woo!" the blonde haired boy whom had spoke to Sasuke before cheered, standing up in his own Mexican wave. Naruto watched amusedly as the blonde, Deidara, received no recognition from the red head, yet carried on smiling any way. "I got all your stuff ready, 'cause I'm dead good, yeah!"
"Thanks. What are we doing?" Sasori asked, slinging his bag underneath the table after getting out his own photographs. Naruto half-listened to their conversation as he continued to mix his paints carefully – he'd have to take time over this if he didn't want himself to look stupid in front of Sasuke, who, he noticed, had already started painting. He watched for a moment as the boy's pale wrist flicked delicately over the paper, returning to his pallet and mixing colours with a speed and accuracy that made Naruto want to cry.
'Idiot! Get working, or he'll think you're an even bigger retard than he already does,' Naruto mentally berated himself, turning his attention back to his pallet as he continued to attempt to mix the correct colours. Half an hour passed in silence that rang round the whole classroom, every student determined on doing well on this new unit of work, seeing as they'd all failed miserably in the last – everyone except Sasori of course, who was a modern-day Van Gogh.
"Deidara, your ears stick out more than that," Naruto heard the redhead deadpan as he paused working to see how his friend was doing. Deidara turned red and gasped in shock.
"They do not!" he exclaimed, clamping a hand over either ear and glaring at Sasori, before turning to Sasori's work to try and find some error he could pick out. There was nothing. "You… you're… uh… you've made yourself too handsome!" he decided upon, obviously believing this to be a befitting criticism.
"To make myself 'too handsome', I'd have to be considered handsome in the first place," Sasori commented, no change in the tone of his voice as he continued with his work; Deidara looked thoughtful for a moment, evidently trying to work out what he'd meant, deciding on a muttered 'Fathead' before returning to his piece. Sasori smirked. Naruto loved listening in on their arguments, even though he had much more important things to do at the moment, like proving that he was much better at art than Sasuke apparently was.
Naruto turned back to look at Sasuke's work – it was coming along surprisingly well, he'd painted Naruto's hair and head, and was now focusing on his facial features. Naruto gazed morosely at his own canvas – he'd barely painted in the outline. He sighed before readying his paint brush for some hardcore-work for the remainder of the lesson, before a loud thud was heard next to him.
Naruto didn't quite know what to make of what he saw when he turned, which was Sasuke face down in his pallet. 'What's he doing?! Has he passed out?!' He stared, unbelieving at the stationary boy next to him, noticing vaguely that the entire class had turned towards their table at the noise – Naruto didn't know what to do.
"Er… Sasuke?" he tried, leaning in closer, close enough to hear him… snoring?! He'd fallen asleep?!
Naruto reached out tentatively, placing a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, he said louder, "Sasuke!" and shook him slightly. He heard a small groan come from the dark-haired boy, and he began to stir. Relief mingled with Naruto's intense confusion as Sasuke sat up, looking round to find the entire class gaping at him; he raised a hand to his face, which was covered in paint, his fingers briefly wiping above his right eye before bringing them in front of him and gazing at the purple liquid that covered them.
"Shit," he murmured, before standing abruptly and darting out of the classroom faster than Naruto had ever seen any person achieve; he continued to stare, in complete bewilderment as the door swung shut in his wake, Kurenai-sensei raising her head and muttering a brief 'Wuzzat?', clearly having fallen asleep herself.
Without thinking too much about what he was doing, Naruto rose from his own seat and made his own, albeit slower way out of the classroom to find Sasuke and discover just what had happened moments before.
"Strange kid," Deidara remarked into the stiff silence. Sasori nodded in assent.
'Shit, that Uchiha sure can go fast!' Naruto panted as he rounded yet another corner in his scourge of the college. 'He doesn't even know where anything is!' Not one to give up, he continued darting down corridors, sticking his head into empty classrooms and stock cupboards until he had to stop for breath. 'The only places he knows is Sannin-sama's corridor and the… Chemistry labs!'
Turning, Naruto resumed his hurried tailing of Sasuke in the direction of the rooms he had led him to that morning, receiving several strange looks from students he passed and a few 'no running in college!'s from miscellaneous teachers; skidding into the science labs, he popped his head briefly into each of the classrooms, all of which currently had a class in them, so Sasuke wouldn't have gone in there.
Stopping and gazing round at this unfamiliar part of the college, Naruto's eyes fell upon the sign for a gentleman's bathroom hung upon a door to his right – could he be in there? Naruto reached out and placed his hand on the knob, before stopping to calm himself down after his hectic rush around the building. He took several deep breaths, annoyed that it was taking much longer than usual for his heart rate to turn to normal before he twisted his hand and pushed on the door.
Sasuke was stood at a sink at the far end of the room, scrubbing at his face, trying to remove the paint, occasionally checking his appearance in the mirror in front of him. Naruto didn't say anything, he couldn't, just watched the boy as he scratched at stubborn bits of paint on his forehead and pulled it out of his hair, apparently not having noticed the blonde enter the room.
After a few moments of sustained silence, Sasuke looked up towards the mirror, beads of water trickling slowly down his face carrying the last pigments of colour down the drain with them. Naruto finally opened his mouth to speak.
"Why have you followed me?" came a calm voice from the dark-haired boy, leaving Naruto's mouth agape – Sasuke hadn't turned round once to look at him, how the hell did he know he was there? Naruto closed his mouth, opening it again and again, searching for the right words to say; why had he followed Sasuke? The new kid? The weird new kid? Why was he burning with such curiosity that he couldn't stand it?
"What… what happened in class?" he asked tentatively, his voice cracked a little as he coughed to clear it.
"I fell asleep," was the curt reply received from the boy at the opposite end of the room, the boy who had not yet turned round to look at him.
"Yeah I know, but why? Art's not that boring is it?" Naruto added with a weak chuckle, his heart not in it in the slightest as small water droplets continued to run down Sasuke's cheeks, giving the impression of tears; something twisted in Naruto's chest as he took a few steps towards the pale boy, paler than usual, after no response was given. Sasuke visibly bristled as he heard the blonde's hesitant movements closer to where he was stood, and he finally took his eyes from the mirror and fixed them upon Naruto.
Naruto stopped immediately in his tracks, bright blue eyes meeting with those cold, dark, and so very empty black ones – not for the first time that day he felt the entire atmosphere of the room change as the boy stood facing him radiated some obscure air that even Naruto could clearly read as 'Leave me alone.'
"No, no it's not," Sasuke spoke, in a voice of deliberated calm in response to Naruto's question from before. He spoke quietly, yet Naruto could not help but recoil slightly as he went on. "I have narcolepsy. It makes me fall asleep."
The bitterness in his voice, coupled with what he'd just heard made Naruto's eyes widen slightly, as he wondered briefly what it must be like to just… fall asleep without warning – however this wasn't the most important thing to him at the moment, not when Sasuke was in front of him, emitting such hate, waiting for him to reply.
"Well, I'm not gonna pretend I understand what you go through at all, because I don't," he began, trying to steady his voice, "but seriously, there's no need to freak out. If it's the other students you're worried about, they'll have all forgotten about it tomorrow – someone else will have done something stupid by then to take their minds off it, and it's usually me," he grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Naruto wished more than anything he could have seen inside Sasuke's head – his expression was so infuriatingly unreadable, he didn't know whether Sasuke wanted to laugh or shove his head down a nearby toilet.
"It will happen again. It always does."
"Well if it does, I'll be right there to do something stupid to take people's minds off it straight away!" Naruto proclaimed, smiling reassuringly and punching the air with his fist. He didn't know exactly why he was making such a promise, just that he wanted Sasuke to know that he didn't have to worry anymore.
"You can't do that every time," Sasuke replied, still in his curt tone, but with a slight sigh.
"Wanna bet?" Naruto flared slightly in enthusiasm. "Any excuse to cause trouble! And I've already got a few ideas on how to smooth this one over!"
"Fine," Sasuke replied indifferently, folding his arms and surveying Naruto steadily and the blonde could tell he didn't really believe in him in the slightest; well, that was just another challenge, wasn't it? Naruto grinned at the prospect. "Why do you smile so much?" Sasuke asked, as more of a derogatory comment than a question.
"Habit," Naruto replied, still smirking, "plus I have to make up for people like you."
"Hn."
"Well… I suppose we should go back to class. Unless you wanna go get something to eat? The tuck shop's still open," Naruto offered, remembering that Sasuke hadn't eaten lunch, still unable to understand how someone could resist the lure of the lunch hall.
"I'd rather just sign out and leave," Sasuke sighed, finally taking his eyes off Naruto. He walked towards the door, watched intently by the blonde boy, placing his hand on the knob before pausing. "Thanks anyway…" he murmured, before exiting. Naruto listened as his footsteps faded down the outside corridor. Naruto froze for a moment. 'He thanked me! Plan must be working!' he thought happily before taking off towards the art rooms for what remained of his lesson.
He couldn't help but get excited as he planned the best course of action to take to stop the story of 'the new kid falling asleep in class' from spreading, and how, if he did well, Sasuke might actually start to like him. Deciding on a suitably devious method, his thoughts fell again to what it would be like to live with… what was it… 'narcepsoly'? Boy, Shikamaru was right – he was being pensive today; he barely noticed where his feet were taking him before he found himself face-to-face with the door to his art room. Taking a deep breath, he re-entered the room and made his way to his seat.
People immediately began suffocating him with questions as soon as he was sat down, 'What happened with the new guy?' 'How weird was that? He just like, fell asleep!' 'Has he got something wrong with him?"
Naruto waved aside their queries impatiently, gesturing round to the class to gather round his table closer, just in case their comatose teacher overheard. "Yeah yeah, he's fine. But guess what I saw Kakashi-sensei getting up to behind the gym last Friday?"
Well, there you go! Sorry if there's a lot of mistakes in it, but I can't read over my own work, 'cause I just get depressed by how rubbish it is and then nothing would get uploaded!
Reviews and constructive criticism would be immensely appreciated. C:
Lots of love, Daisie. x